CRRC leaves big footprints around globe

China Railway Rolling Stock Corp has a global footprint that spans a staggering 102 countries and regions, and plans for further expansion are on track.

Electric multi-unit trains from CRRC factories can be seen from Macedonia to Brazil. Its light rail cars are in the Philippines and Turkey. Its high-speed trains are set to purr along lines in Indonesia. The company runs freight trains and electric locomotives in South Africa, Ireland, Argentina and Kenya.

When you add it all up, the group's assets abroad have surged from 3 billion yuan ($435 million) in 2013 to 30.6 billion yuan last year. The number of overseas employees has also jumped from 509 in 2013 to 4,808 last year.

On top of those figures, CRRC is operating 75 subsidiaries globally, including 13 research and development centers located in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany.

"The group will deliver the first order of metro cars to Istanbul from its manufacturing facility in Turkey later this year," said Liu Hualong, chairman of CRRC.

Earlier in May, the rail giant announced plans to build a freight train factory in Canada and expand its marketing channels in North America. The plant will be built in Moncton, New Brunswick, and will create more than 200 jobs in the first phase. The factory will be capable of manufacturing heavy load railway cars, tankers and brakes.

Last year, CRRC's total orders from abroad in 2016 surged by 40 percent to $8.1 billion.

About 83 percent of countries with rail networks are using CRRC products. Overall, the company employs 190,000 workers and has 430 subsidiaries, freight trains, coaches and other rail products, as well as semiconductors, deep-sea equipment and renewable energy buses.

CRRC will supply subway trains and light-rail units to US customers in Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia through local subsidiaries.

It also clinched a $647 million deal to supply 282 rail coaches to the Los Angeles Metro network last month.

"One key plan is to further develop smart trains, which use advanced digitalization and automation technologies that enable automatic speed controls and fault detection," said CRRC Vice-President Yu Weiping.

Strong financing and a flexible investment strategy will help the company stay ahead of its foreign rivals, and high-speed train technology, a sophisticated global sales and management network will also be key drivers of growth, according to experts.

"In the current global economic climate, a number of international train-makers are short of cash and struggling to keep their costs down to support long-term projects in overseas markets," said Sun Fuquan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development in Beijing.