Caf/Siemens (Llanwern and overseas)

The CAF Llanwern Works — opened on 26 September 2018 near Newport in south Wales — is the most significant addition to British railway manufacturing capacity since the BREL era, the first purpose-built new rolling stock factory established in Britain since the privatisation of BREL in 1989. Built by CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) of Beasain in the Basque Country, the Llanwern plant was established to supply CAF's growing portfolio of UK rolling stock contracts and to satisfy commitments under those contracts' UK content requirements.

The Llanwern factory builds CAF's Civity family of electric and diesel multiple units for British operators, including the Class 195 diesel and Class 331 electric units for Northern Trains, the Class 397 for TransPennine Express, and subsequent orders as CAF has expanded its British market position. The works assembles, fits out, and tests vehicles whose bodyshells and major components are manufactured at CAF's Spanish facilities, with final build and commissioning in Wales giving the trains their UK content and satisfying franchise contract domestic production requirements.

Siemens Mobility, whose UK rolling stock is built at its Krefeld and Wegberg-Wildenrath facilities in Germany, has collaborated with CAF on certain joint contracts for the British market. The Llanwern works represents the broader international investment in UK rolling stock manufacturing that has followed privatisation — Spanish, German, Canadian, French, and Japanese firms have all established or proposed British manufacturing facilities in response to the UK market's scale and the political pressure for domestic production content in public transport contracts.