Zhuzhou develops into renowned exporter of locomotive products
The output of the railway industry in China’s electric locomotive capital, Zhuzhou, is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) by 2020, officials said at an international transit summit in Zhuzhou.
Zhuzhou, a small city with a population of 4.05 million in Central China’s Hunan province, was known as the Engine Valley of China, partly due to its production of China’s first electric locomotive in 1958, and partly because its self-developed products, including maglev trains, have been exported to more than 70 countries and regions, making it the world’s largest supplier of electric locomotives with a 27 percent share of the global market.
CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co Ltd, one of 300 rail transit manufacturing enterprises in Zhuzhou, signed a deal with Czech rail operator Leo Express in December 2016 to sell three electric multiple units (EMUs) for $21 million, marking the first such deal with a European Union member in China, according to Liao Hongtao, deputy general manager of CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive.
Since the EU has strict standards on the safety and reliability of trains, the deal showed the international market’s recognition of Chinese manufacturers, Liao said.
After one month, the company had sold four electric locomotives to Macedonia to run on the pan-European electric railway line 10.
A repairer of imported steamers as far back as 1936, CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive now produces 60 percent of domestic locomotives.
Its products include highspeed trains, new energy automobiles, intercity EMU trains, mass transit vehicles and middle-to-low-speed magnetically levitated (maglev) rail lines, according to the company’s website.
CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Co Ltd, another local locomotive maker, exported eight-inch insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) chips to India in November 2016, which will be put into the transformers of 100 locomotives in India to make electric trains more energy-efficient, according to a Xinhua report.
The company built China’s first and the world’s second eight-inch IGBT chip production line in 2014. The chips have various uses, from highspeed rail to the aerospace and aviation industries, the report said.
CRRC Zhuzhou Institute has three listed subsidiaries, five overseas technical research centers, more than 2,000 patents and has helped set 69 international standards in the locomotive industry, said the company’s representative.
“Rail transit is the pillar industry of the city,” said Yang Weiguo, mayor of Zhuzhou. “We are now constructing an international rail transit equipment manufacturing base through the upgrading of rail transit products, localization of supporting industries, globalization of the market and integration of the development of the industry with that of the city.”
The output of Changsha’s rail transit industry reached 100.4 billion yuan ($14.6 billion) in 2015 and this figure is expected to double in five years, Yang said.
“We expect to develop Zhuzhou into a first-class research and manufacturing center, as well as China’s biggest service center for the rail transit industry,” he said.
Zhuzhou is also developing new energy automobiles, wind power generation and other green products.
Liu Youmei, director of the experts’ committee of CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive, said: “Related technology in rail transit has been weighted on high speed and heavy loads. In the future, it should give more emphasis to intelligent and environmentally friendly modes.”