GE says it will lose Angola train deal if Ex-Im Bank closes

Washington

GENERAL Electric Co would lose a US$350-million deal to build locomotives for Angola, and perhaps billions of dollars more in future export opportunities, if Congress closes the US Export-Import Bank, a senior GE executive told Reuters. "It would be gone," GE Transportation unit president Russell Stokes said of a not-yet-finalised agreement announced by the global conglomerate in March for 100 lightweight diesel-electric locomotives to be built in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Up to 1,800 jobs at GE, its suppliers and local businesses in 12 states would be put at risk because, without Ex-Im financing, Angola would buy Chinese-built locomotives, he said.