U.S. equipment shippers get Ex-Im loan

U.S. equipment shippers get Ex-Im loan    U.S. manufacturers and suppliers are selling locomotives and mining equipment to Iron Ore Co. of Canada (IOC), backed by $54.4 million in loan guarantees from the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
   Electro-Motive Diesel of La Grange, Ill., and its U.S. suppliers will provide seven locomotives to IOC’s rail subsidiary Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway Co. A $10.03 million Ex-Im Bank loan guarantee is supporting the sale. It is the bank’s first financing for IOC.
   In addition, IOC will buy electric shovels, off-road trucks, bulldozers and other mining equipment from various U.S.-based manufacturers, including Komatsu America Corp. and Caterpillar, both of Peoria, Ill.; and Harnischfeger Corp. in Milwaukee. The sale is backed by a $44.4 million Ex-Im Bank loan guarantee.
   “IOC is more likely to continue to buy U.S.-manufactured equipment, even during economic downturns, if it knows that Ex-Im Bank financing is a viable alternative when other sources of long-term financing are limited or unavailable,” said Fred P. Hochberg, the bank’s chairman and president, in a statement on Thursday.