New | China in talks with 28 countries on rail projects
Yu Weiping, vice president of CNR, said some of the projects in the 28 countries are in very early stages of discussion
China is in talks with 28 countries including Russia, about high-speed rail projects, state-backed train maker China CNR said on Wednesday.
Yu Weiping, vice president of CNR, said though some of the projects in the 28 countries are in very early stages of discussion.
“(The) promising projects are the one in Russia, Thailand, and India. For the Moscow to Kazan line, China and Russia have formed a task force to work on it,” he said during a visit to one of the company’s factories in Tangshan city in northeastern China.
So far, China has not yet successfully sold high-speed trains that can run at 300 kilometers per hour overseas, although Beijing has been promoting its high-speed rail technology hard.
High-speed railway markets in Southeast Asia and Russia would be the focus of CNR’s expansion this year, said Yu, pointing to the project in Russia and “the line in Thailand.”
For the line connecting Moscow and Kazan, Yu said CNR has submitted the route and local manufacturing plan to Russia. “So far, the successful rate for CNR’s bidding for overseas project is around 50 to 60 per cent,” he said. CNR is facing a number of rivals such as Germany’s Siemens, Alstom of France, Bombardier of Canada among others.
“The main challenges for us to expand in foreign markets are trade barriers, different manufacturing standards, diplomatic factors, higher fund-raising costs for Chinese companies as well as the inconvenience caused by our working visa limits,” said Yu.
Meanwhile, China Railway Corporation (CRC), the national rail operator, has also formed a subsidiary to step up overseas expansion. Han Jiangping, spokesman CRC, said the international arm had completed business registration on December 30, 2014.
He said many countries showed interest in working with China’s rail operators and suppliers in recent years and the new company will be a business-level platform for corporations overseas.
Railway construction within China has also been accelerating. To finance a number of infrastructure projects, China Railway Group (CRG), the largest state-owned railway construction firm, planned to issue new shares to raise up to 12 billion yuan.
CRG said it will issue up to 1.57 billion new A Shares to not more than 10 investors, including China Railway Engineering Corporation, its controlling shareholder. The issue price will be not less than 7.65 yuan per new A share, 6 per cent below its closing price before its trading halt. CRG shares resumed trading in both Hong Kong and Shanghai yesterday. It’s A share rose 2.2 per cent to close at 8.32 yuan while the H share dropped around 2 per cent to finish at HK$5.58.
