Industrial Sales & Manufacturing, Inc.

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How does a deal signed between a large corporation and a train system in Asia benefit a small business that was started in a garage in Pennsylvania 50 years ago?

The answer is that the company in Pennsylvania, Industrial Sales & Manufacturing, Inc. (ISM), manufactures critical components of the locomotives that will be exported to Asia.

In October 2014, a $94.3 million financing agreement between the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (Ex-Im Bank), GE Transportation, and Indonesian Railway was signed, securing the export of 50 GE locomotives to Jakarta. Almost ten thousand miles away from Jakarta in Erie, PA, ISM was also an important part of the deal as they provide fabricated parts for GE locomotives.

Since its founding in 1963, what was once a humble three-person operation out of a garage has grown today to 175 employees who work across three facilities. ISM supplies parts for trains, medical devices, renewable energy generators, and other applications. Overseas markets represent a significant portion of the company’s business and deal financed through the Ex-Im Bank account for up to a fifth of the company’s revenue. Approximately 13 percent of the workforce is devoted to supplying train parts for GE locomotives, many of which are sold abroad.

The company sees reauthorizing the Ex-Im as a fundamentally American issue. Whether American companies can compete in the global marketplace is critical to determining whether the companies can build jobs back home. That’s the message ISM wants Washington to hear.