Alna Kōki

The Alna Kōki logo.

Alna Kōki was a Japanese locomotive builder, noted for its strong ties with the Hankyu Corporation.

The company's history dates back to 1947 when the company was founded as Naniwa Kōki by a founder of the Hankyu Corporation, Ichizo Kobayashi. Naniwa Kōki started out building heavy rail locomotives before branching out and producing streetcars for Tobu and Toei. Naniwa Kōki entered the building material sector in 1960. Naniwa Kōki then created "Naniwa Aluminum", an aluminum product; it was from this product that the company was thus renamed to Alna Kōki (Naniwa Aluminum = Arumi no Naniwa) in 1970, with the "Aruna" being romanized to "Alna".

Throughout its history as Alna Kōki, the company had strong ties with Hankyu Corporation, being the exclusive manufacturer of their rolling stock until 1991; the last sets they produced for Hankyu was a set of 8000 series cars in 1997. However, due to economic downturn, the company was suffering financially; Hankyu decided to spin off the building material division to another company in an attempt to increase profits but to no avail. The company was extremely close to bankruptcy at one point. Finally, in 2001, Hankyu made the decision to spin off all the companies in Alna Kōki and split them all into three different companies: Alna Sharyo for the production of rail vehicles, Alna Yusoki Yohin for doors and window frames for vehicles and bus stop signs (now owned by Kawasaki Heavy Industries) and Alna Yano Tokusha, a manufacturer of freezers.

Products

• Building materials
• Heavy and light rail rolling stock