When China`s latest fast train set a world record during a trial run on the Beijing-Shanghai line last Friday, it had people at the China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp (CSR) cheering.
The record breaker, traveling at 486.1 kilometers/hour, was a 16-car bullet train designed and built by CSR`s Qingdao Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co Ltd.
"This is a milestone in Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway construction, and a major achievement in China`s train technology innovation," said Wang Yongping, a Railway Ministry spokesman.
On the same day, another high-speed train, the CRH380A, which has a maximum speed of 380 km/h on regular runs, went into service on the Wuhan-Guangzhou line.
CSR is the mainland`s largest high-speed train manufacturer and said, on Friday, that it is looking to push revenues to 100 billion yuan in 2012, and 150 billion yuan in 2015, compared with 45.6 billion yuan, in 2009.
The company said it has its eyes set on a bigger slice of the global high-speed train pie in three years` time.
CSR may also bid jointly with General Electric to build high-speed train lines in California and Florida as the United States increases spending on railways.
The companies may also compete for a project on the east coast of the US, CSR`s Chairman Zhao Xiaogang said last Friday.
In 2009, the company`s revenues grew 30 percent, helping it record compound annual growth of 30 percent for the 2007-2009 period. Net profits, which had compound growth of 56 percent, totaled 2.1 billion yuan in 2009.
This year the company is looking for even brighter results. The first three quarters of 2010 saw revenues jump 46.8 percent, to 43.1 billion yuan, from the previous year, and net profit soared 73.8 percent to 1.8 billion yuan.
"China has yet to see an integrated high-speed rail network take shape. But once that happens, we expect in 2012, we`ll see greater growth of the company`s profits," Zhao noted.
The management say that technology is the one great driver behind the growth. CSR was the major supplier of the vehicles that served important events like the 2008 Olympic Games, the Shanghai Expo, and the recently-concluded Guangzhou Asian Games.
The sleek white CRH380A train hit a speed of 486.1 km/hr on the Zaozhuang (Shandong province) to Bengbu (Anhui province) line, a segment of the Beijing-Shanghai line, which is yet to open.
That was as fast as a jet plane at cruising at slow speed.
The company is also bidding on projects in China, which plans to more than double its high-speed passenger network to about 16,000 km, by 2020, Zhao said.
China is accelerating construction work to ease transportation bottlenecks, he said.
Track-laying on the Beijing-Shanghai line, the world`s longest, was completed on Nov 15. It is scheduled for operation in late 2011. Travel time on the 1,318-km route will be cut to about four hours, from the current 10.
The 220.9-billion-yuan ($33.3 billion) project will link China`s two important economic zones - the Bohai Bay area in the North and the Yangtze River Delta region in the center - and pass through some of the richest, fastest-developing regions - the city of Tianjin and Shandong and Jiangsu provinces.
Expanding int`l profile
Although the GE-CSR venture may face competition from elsewhere, such as Bombardier Inc, Alstom SA and East Japan Railway Co, China says it may offer financing for a California high-speed line, costing at least $40 billion, to break into the US market.
They will decide which of the lines to bid on over the next three years, Zhao said.
"Bidding for such projects can help give CSR an international profile and boost its image as a global company," said Stanley Yan, a Shanghai analyst at Masterlink Securities Corp.
Beijing-based CSR wants overseas sales to account for 20 percent of total revenues by 2015, up from about 8 percent now, the company said. It expects total sales to climb to 150 billion yuan ($23 billion) by that time, he said.
"Overseas contracts are lucrative and we want to expand sales," Zhao commented. "We`re actively seeking sales in the US, where there are seven or eight contracts in the pipeline."
GE, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, is the world`s biggest maker of diesel trains and is building a diesel train factory in Changzhou, China.
The two companies last month agreed to form a diesel-train-parts venture. GE has agreed to cooperate with China on high-speed railways. The partnership could eventually support about 3,500 jobs in the US, GE said last year.
China Daily