Anja Soderstrom: Okay. I’m sorry. Okay. still a good increase. And when in terms of the health care, it seems like you had some — I mean the flights were also have those being shipped in this quarter instead, but also some issues with the production. How much did I sold you and…?
Wendy Diddell: yes, that’s a good question. SP1 In the quarter — the production — the equipment that caused us some problems within the last month of the quarter. And overall, it cost us maybe 1% of margin. So it wasn’t significant. We were really doing well through the first part of the quarter in terms of producing tubes. So it was a small blip. But again, maybe a percentage point in the gross margin.
Anja Soderstrom: And then 1 last question, if I may. So the ask that you work with, are they single searching with you? Or are they also working with other partners?
Wendy Diddell: Regarding what business?
Anja Soderstrom: The OEMs, in general, are they single sourcing with you? Or are they also working with other partners?
Ed Richardson: On the GES side, on the products we have today, for example, the Altra we’re exclusive with the 4 top owner operators of GE wind turbines in North America. So almost all of our products since are unique, it’s a unique technology. We do have competitors, but the business we have today, we are a sole source.
Operator: Our next question comes from Denis Amato shareholder. — can hear us. We can’t hear you. You might try back. Can you hear me now? — here we go perfect.
Denis Amato: Yes. No, I just wanted to congratulate you on the quarter as well. I’m sure you’re disappointed as all of us are by the less than enthusiastic response that Markit has given you. But my question is for Bob Ben. I noticed of the $30 million in cash, $5 million shows up as being invested in short term. Given the recent uptick in short-term rates around the world. Is there any additional opportunities to invest some of the cash to provide return?
Robert Ben: Dennis, that’s a good question. We do have an investment committee that looks at that each quarter. And we were able to get, as you were noting the increase in interest rates. We were able to get an increase in rates. But still, the markets have not moved up that substantially in rates. So — but we’re consistently looking at it. And as you noted, we have $5 million of that invested. I might add, too, that — we’re — as you know, we’re a very global company, and we have many locations around the world. And so our cash is located in many different countries. And so most of it is here in the U.S., of course, where we have the $5 million invested. But Other than that, I believe we have some invested in China, but the rest is used to operate the business.
Denis Amato: So I mean, what prevents you from buying real short-term bills or whatever. I mean you could still keep it basically accessible and still earn something on it. Even the European money market rates are up to a couple percent. I mean…
Robert Ben: Sure. And as I noted, we’re consistently looking at that. But again, we do have — we have many locations around the world, approximately 25 in many different countries so we need the cash on hand to operate and run the business. But when we can, we do invest it, but we can only do that for so long.
Denis Amato: Okay. Well, I mean I understood a while ago when the rates were so low, but as they’ve come up quite a bit, and I think you need to sharpen the fence a little.
Operator: Next question comes from David Schneider.
Unidentified Analyst: I have a few questions. What you’re doing with electric trains when I would — if I would take a train to Manhattan, there’s electric lines above the train and people are not shoveling coal into an engine or burning wood for power. So can you maybe explain to everyone basically the electrification effort and what your role would be in it. And then I have a couple of other questions.
Ed Richardson: Well, right now, our current program and products that we’re working on is our partner’s Progress Rail. They’re in the process of designing and manufacturing electric vehicles, both for North America owner operators and their Brazil location for international. We do everything from build the battery modules that will go into the train itself to the battery modules and the racks to the third part we’re doing and that part we’re doing here in LaFox is building the entire superstructure, which includes controlling circuitry, fire suppression, the whole thing. They have — or that market, if you will, has an edict by 2030 to decarbonize. I don’t have the percent right with me today of their diesel locomotives. So we’re also working on products, everything from starter modules that will be put into the diesel locomotives to get the percent of that product dream by 2030.
So for the electric locomotive market, we are designing and manufacturing, if you will, the battery modules that will replace the diesel engine. Right now, we’ve been awarded 3 different trains — I’m sorry, 4 different trains through Progress Rail. And we continue to work with them on a weekly basis for the design and implementation for them. But they are prototypes. Going forward, if you look at this, this is probably today on the books over $25 million of prototype orders. So you can kind of see the opportunity here once this becomes, as you mentioned, commonplace to convert all the diesel locomotives to electric. On the electric vehicle, also, we have products that we have designed into Binsmart, which is in Vietnam, which is an electric car manufacturer.
And we also have a number of programs and strong business going on with Triton, who is the largest North America manufacturer of charging stations. So that’s kind of what we’re playing now. Obviously, that’s a multibillion-dollar market. And one thing that Richardson has done a good job of, I think, is finding niche products and niche applications through our component suppliers, but also our internal engineering capabilities to offer true value as this market is launched. And we are right at the cusp of it. We are in the middle of it. And so we’re very excited, not only about FY ’23, but the future of these type of products that will also expand in other applications as we learn the technology.
