French company taps into China rail market

More multinationals are cashing in on China's ambition to build the world's largest high-speed railway network.

French power engineering and train company Alstom SA signed a long-term cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Railways to jointly develop rail markets in China and abroad.

The deal includes cooperation in developing rolling stock and signaling, Alstom said.

"With China's ambitious (high-speed rail) plan, Alstom sees it generating huge demand and providing many opportunities," Alstom Chairman and CEO Patrick Kron said. "This is a general framework. We will finalize partnership details in the next three months."

Alstom signed a memorandum of understanding with high-speed train manufacturer CNR Co Ltd and Shanghai Electric Group in September to jointly develop new urban transit products.

Tuesday's agreement was signed on the sidelines of the three-day Seventh World Congress on High Speed Rail, which opened in Beijing on the same day.

General Electric also announced that it had signed an agreement with CSR Co Ltd, China's largest high-speed train manufacturer, to establish a 50-50 joint venture to manufacture high-speed trains in the United States using technology from China.

"The joint venture, with an investment of $50 million in the first stage, will be the first US manufacturer to supply high-speed rail passenger trains for the two proposed (high-speed rail) corridors in Florida and California," GE Vice-Chairman John Rice said.

He was appointed in November to oversee a new international business structure from Hong Kong, signaling GE's focus on overseas markets.

"We will also be interested in building high-speed railway lines beyond the US when it makes sense," Rice said.

Yang Hao, a railway transport professor in Beijing Jiaotong University, said the two companies are using each others' advantages to enhance their performance.

"CSR has advanced high-speed rail passenger train technology at a competitive price, attracting GE to partner with it, while GE can help CSR enter the US market," he said.

China's latest fast train, the CRH380A, built by CSR, set a world record on Dec 3 by hitting 486.1 km/h during a trial run on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.