Chinese Electric Locomotives Run Quickly towards International Market Record of CSR Zhuzhou s Participation into the Construction of the Central Asian Railway

A new Silk Road linking more than 30 countries has been built at today s Alataw pass, previously known as Gobi Desert, from where CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s two electric locomotives will be exported to Uzbekistan on May 20, and the two locomotives will directly drive to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan along China-Kirghizstan-Uzbekistan Railway after passing by the customs. It is the fourth time for CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. abbreviated as CSR Zhuzhou below to export electric locomotives to the Central Asia. As per relevant agreements, the company s another 35 locomotives will drive towards Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan within this year, and they will assume the personal rapid transit traction to most of international trains and through trains along electrified trunk railways in both countries, with the result that such two countries railway transportation capacity will be doubled.

After successfully supporting China railway s sixth speedup, Made in China electric locomotives furthered its support to other countries and regions like the Central Asia. Since beginning the service in Uzbekistan in 2003, CSR Zhuzhou s electric locomotives helped increase the hourly speed of the country s passenger trains and goods trains respectively from 65km and 50km to 120km and 100km, with single-unit traction being advanced from about 1500t to 4000t. Due to this, development of Uzbekistan s railway transportation industry was accelerated by more than 20 years. Ever since 2004, CSR Zhuzhou s electric locomotives ran back and forth between the former capital Alma-ata and the new capital Astana, touted as Kazakhstan s most important golden channel. Thanks to these locomotives service, the tense passenger transportation along the line was greatly alleviated, which promoted Kazakhstan railway equipments transformation from low speed to high speed and from DC to AC.

From China speedup to the world speedup, CSR Zhuzhou, with speed-chasing passion and enthusiasm, always keeps in mind Overtake the World First Class ultimate goal, and it never stops so as to achieve its dream Rejuvenate China Rail Transit Equipment Manufacture Sector and Take the Lead in the World Railway Equipment Industry . Today, it has fostered Chinese brand in the international arena. However, all these achievements are closely associated with the central government and the State Council s strategic decision Introduce Advanced Technology, Joint Design and Production, and Cultivate China s Independent Brand , and they are also conditional on CSR Zhuzhou employees pragmatic, scientific, and To be No. 1 spirit.

Chinese Electric Locomotive Tycoon Steps Towards Internationalization Stably

China s resurgence and Chinese railway equipment manufacture industry s leap-forward development bring new Chinese knowledge to the world.

From China railway industry s development we can see that the railway, as the artery of China s national economy, will play more and more important role in Chinese economy. Through introduction, study, assimilation, and re-innovation, the railway locomotive equipments industry, which serves as the symbol of the railway modernization, has achieved the perfect transformation from technical input to product technology output during the process from Overtake the World to Lead the World , and at the meantime, independently-researched Chinese Brand and International Brand were successfully marketed.

The Central Government and the State Council always support domestic enterprises to Walk Out , and they attach much importance to the development of Chinese rail transit equipment manufacturers. Chinese President Hu Jintao ever pointed out that the railway, as the artery of the national economy, the important infrastructure, and the public transportation tool, played an important role to China s economic and social development, thus we should accelerate the growth of China railway industry so as to make more contributions for China s well-off society construction and socialist modernization construction.

The Railway Minister Liu Zhijun said at the annual railway work conference: the macro environment at home is favorable for China railway industry s fast-rate growth. The Central Government and the State Council gave sufficient affirmation and had high anticipation to the railway development, and the local governments offered strong support to the railway development. International environment for China railway industry is also favorable. Due to this, we should walk out and put in place key Walk out projects so as to enlarge China railway industry s external communication and strongly develop the port transportation by railway.

Global railway industry is welcoming a golden period. It is estimated that in five years to come, about 5 trillion yuan will be used in global railway transportation development every year, of which, 700 billion yuan will be used in purchasing railway vehicles 80-100 billion yuan in Chinese market, and 600-620 billion yuan in international market.

In face of the opportunity, the one who grips it will win. Against such background, China rail transit equipment vendors should run at a fast rate and even at an accelerated rate so as to overtake domestic and international counterparts.

As the mainstream force in China rail transit equipment manufacture industry, we should assume the mission of rejuvenating the national industry and cultivating Chinese brand. We should not only stabilize our leading role in domestic market but also develop international market, so as to win preemptive advantages , said Executive Director and General Manager of CSR Zhuzhou Xu Zongxiang who has the definite knowledge to the company s development prospect.

As early as 1997, CSR Zhuzhou started to plan its business in a worldwide scope, and it researched and produced TM1electric locomotives tailored to the Middle East, which heralded the beginning of Chinese electric locomotive industry s complete vehicle export. In 2001 and 2002, the company set foot in the Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Against the background that numerous enterprises were seriously influenced by the global financial crisis, CSR Zhuzhou stood out from the financial meltdown. In 2009, its contractual value in overseas market exceeded 500 million yuan, and its high-end metro vehicles were not only exported to Singapore, considered as the country with highest metro technology access standard, but also sold to the European market: it received light rail train orders worth 350 million yuan from IzmirCity of Turkey. With the delivery of electric locomotives to Uzbekistan this year, CSR Zhuzhou will welcome a Locomotive Centralized Delivery period: it will deliver 65 locomotives to other regions and the Central Asian counties like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

We should develop overseas market earlier and faster. Today, speed and strength are core factors for an enterprise to survive in the international market, thus we should grip core technologies so as to predominate in global rail transit market. We should also take advantage of our high-end system integration ability to integrate the optimal resources in the world, as well as to cultivate end-to-end global industry chain, international marketing channel, and global comprehensive logistics system, which is right our strategic choice for our future growth , said General Manager Xu Zongxiang who has a keen insight to overseas operation.

During 13 years of overseas operation process from Middle East to Europe and from single product to diversified operation, CSR Zhuzhou was invited to participate in different projects bidding in six continents and 21 countries, and it eventually won 11 project orders, which helped the company not only make achievements in traditional markets like the Middle East and the Central Asia, but also develop potential customers in other regions like SE Asia, South Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe.

So far, the world first-class parts suppliers successively visited the company, with the result that its project industry chain like locomotive export to Kazakhstan and locomotive export to Uzbekistan has been extended to such countries as Germany, Russia, and the Czech Republic. Over past 13 years, the company has transformed from single product export to diversified international operation, and fostered an export pattern involving diversified products like electric locomotives, city rail vehicles, and core components etc. Meanwhile, its internationalized operation mode developed towards overseas investment and technical output.

CSR Zhuzhou, with the aim to become the world-advanced rail transit solution provider, capitalizes on open independent innovation during the process from manufacture to creation so as to grip core technologies and take up the technical summit of the rail transit equipments manufacture industry. It also evolves from Large Enterprise to Strong Enterprise to win more say in international specialization, in a bid to transform from localized enterprise to world-class enterprise as well as to improve its core competitiveness in an all-round manner.

Customized All-new Electric Locomotive Receives Warm Welcome in Central Asia

Chief Engineer of CSR Zhuzhou Suo Jianguo ever served as the project principal in the Central Asia, CSR Zhuzhou s traditional market. After CSR Zhuzhou s first electric locomotive was exported to Uzbekistan and put into service in 2003, the locomotive received warm welcome for its excellent quality, which left a deep mark on Suo Jianguo s memory. Mr. Suo said: when receiving the locomotive, users in Uzbekistan were stunned by the Chinese electric locomotive s high quality and luxury. In 2004, Uzbekistan specially held an exhibition at the CIS Railway Annual Conference, in order to display CSR Zhuzhou s locomotive to officials and railway experts of surrounding countries like Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Since then Chinese electric locomotive became famous in the Central Asia, which laid solid foundation for CSR Zhuzhou to stabilize its railway market in the Central Asia.

First success in the Central Asia enlightened CSR Zhuzhou: quality product is a magic weapon to win market shares. Therefore, CSR Zhuzhou redoubled its survey and research to basic elements like climate, technical standard, and operation environment in the target market, and Locomotive Export to Kazakhstan and Locomotive Export to Uzbekistan are regarded as the successfully cases.

Rail gauge in the Central Asia is 1520mm, 85mm wider than China s. Due to this, locomotive s bogie solution and locomotive dynamics should be recalculated and redesigned, which accordingly ushered in CSR Zhuzhou s Locomotive Customization Project .

In the simulation laboratory, the technical team collected enormous parameters on railway lines of the Central Asia as well as materials in respect of climate conditions, so as to conduct simulation calculation and experiment. Through hundreds of tests and thousands of simulation experiments, the team sifted out the optimal design solution in the long run, and it optimized locomotive traction and suspension means design by improving locomotive damper and suspension system s parameters. The all-new design helped reduce energy consumption per locomotive by 5%, equivalent to saving of more than 20 million tons of coal.

Railway lines in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are characterized by many bend roads, small degree of curvature, and large temperature difference minimum temperature -50 , and maximum temperature: 50 .

Due to the harsh environment, the locomotive s traction performance and brake performance become extremely important for its stable running. Technical Director of CSR Zhuzhou Zhou De an said: on the basis of previous survey and research, the company customized the locomotive design for Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. For instance, the company optimized the wheel and rail relations so that the train has sufficient safety margin while running along the bending railway. It also equipped the train with Russia - Locomotive Safety Signal System and Driver Alarm System so as to improve the locomotive s computer control safety running. The company also adopted various safety equipments and safety signs so as to ensure the users personal safety and equipments running safety. To test locomotive s reliability in local complicated conditions, the company implemented 10 million times of fatigue life tests to bogie architecture.

How to make locomotive run stably in -50 environment? It is a big challenge to the design team. Cold-proof system customized to Kazakhstan locomotive is the world s first , said Technical Manager of CSR Zhuzhou Central Asia Project Li Xining. He added: to make locomotive run normally in -50 environment, we figured out the special design, which has not relevant technical standard and is also the first cold-proof design in the world. Siemens ever customized electric locomotives for North European countries like Sweden, but these locomotives run only in -40 environment. Therefore, there is no experience for us, so we should start from zero on.

Such simple cold-proof design condenses blood and sweat of CSR Zhuzhou Project s technical team, who also made breakthrough in the following aspects: purchase of cold-proof materials for the locomotive body, deign of locomotive heat supply system, improvement of parts and components low temperature resistance performance, setup of locomotive preheating fan for complete vehicle s preheating

Since 2004 when the first locomotive was delivered, CSR Zhuzhou s electric locomotives underwent many challenges by harsh environments like desert, Gobi, and windstorm along the 1000km railway in Kazakhstan.

High-tech and Environmentally-friendly Locomotive Design

Low-carbon economy is bringing changes to the development of international trade and international industries. Against the background, who firstly develops the low-carbon technologies and industries, who are bound to take preemptive advantage in the new-round economic growth and become the leader in global economy.

Over past years, some countries of the CIS in the Central Asia continuously organized purchase or tendering/bidding for modernized railway reconstruction equipments, and the project value was usually handsome. For instance, CSR Zhuzhou ever won Kazakhstan s purchase order for electric locomotive, with purchase value hitting USf 100 million. To improve international competitiveness, CSR Zhuzhou gave up price war during the process of developing the Central Asia market, and it accentuated the sales of high-tech and environmentally-friendly products so as to seek higher price-performance ratio.

As signatory countries to many international environmental documents treaties, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan shall abide by several environmental protection treaties like CEIA, BASEE, and Vienna Convention in railway development. Due to this, CSR Zhuzhou adopted standard in its design, and it selected the renewable materials. For instance, domestic enterprises usually employed low-cost lead acid storage battery, but CSR Zhuzhou made use of high-cost nickel-cadmium battery meeting international environmental protection standard in its Locomotive Export to Uzbekistan project, so as to meet Uzbekistan s low-carbon and environmentally-friendly requirements. In addition, for the sake of reducing locomotive noise, CSR Zhuzhou, in light of UIC651 standard, optimized the main noise source on the one hand, and it leveraged new materials and methods to cut off or reduce the noise transmission on the other hand.

Design director of Locomotive Export to Uzbekistan Project Chen Anjun said: low-carbon environmental protection is also exemplified from the locomotive weight. In general, locomotives of this kind are 88t in weight, but our locomotives are only 85t, which will help the locomotive save electricity by 30,000KWH/year, equivalent to 30t/year reduction in carbon dioxide emission.

Li Xining said: railway development in the Central Asia is relatively backward. During the project negotiation process, our company, upholding the philosophy Participate in Central Asia s Railway Development , did our utmost to make them receive new technologies. When sitting together for technical negotiation, Li Xining and Project Manager of Uzbekistan Ministry of Railway Kasaev had frequent contacts in two months to determine the brake system. Previously, Lenin locomotives in the Central Asia adopted the laggard tread brake system, so CSR Zhuzhou put forward that the Locomotive Export to Uzbekistan project should employ technically advanced disc brake system, but the proposal was denied by Mr. Kasaev who believed that it was no need to use new technology because tread brake system had been used in Uzbekistan for many years.

In consideration of the locomotive s high-speed running, we are convinced that the disc brake system can better reduce the brake s wear to the rail, and it is safer and more reliable. said Li Xining. However, Mr. Kasaev still had doubt to the technology.

One day, when drinking coffee with Mr. Kasaev, Li Xining said: I liken the locomotive wheel as the rotary coffee cup. The tread brake resembles that I hold the rotary coffee up with my five fingers, i.e., I forestall the cup s rotation by fingers friction to the cup s external wall, which will lead to much wear to the wheel. The disc brake resembles that I use thumb and forefinger to hold the rotary coffee cup s bottom both inside and outside, and my fingers do not contact the wheel but exert force to the brake disc so as to achieve braking effect.

Hearing the words, Mr. Kasaev eventually understood the theory, and he gladly accepted Mr. Li s proposal. After the locomotive with disc brake system begun its service in Uzbekistan, its wheel replacement rate was reduced greatly, so Kasaev sighed: it is the wise choice for us to use the disk brake.

In Locomotive Export to Kazakhstan and Locomotive Export to Uzbekistan projects, CSR Zhuzhou integrated global optimal resources for integration and innovation, and it adopted international standards from UIC, Russian Federation, EU, and IEC to purchase parts with the optimal price-performance ratio in global market. It also systematically integrated Siemens Company s converter and network control technologies as well as Russia s brake and signal system technologies so as to adapt its locomotives to local environment requirements. To improve locomotive quality, CSR Zhuzhou introduced China s first passenger transportation AC electric locomotive bogie and all-new large power passenger & goods locomotive traction main transformer. In drive unit, it firstly adopted flexible suspension means.

During the process of global procurement, the purchase team encountered hard nut in the purchase to vacuum cutout system for Locomotive Export to Kazakhstan project. According to original planning, the vacuum cutout system should be purchased from French Alstom. However, Alstom offered high pricing during the negotiation because it gripped the core technology. In addition, Alstom did not make definite the goods supply cycle, which edged the purchase team into a real predicament.

After discussing with members of the technical team, Li Xining determined to independently produce the vacuum cutout system, and the production process only lasted for 30 days, which fully exemplified CSR Zhuzhou s strong innovation capacity high work efficiency. After being put into service in Kazakhstan for half year, the first independently researched vacuum cutout system met requirements in different performance indexes, and such system saved nearly 300,000 yuan for CSR Zhuzhou.

Consummated design is conditional on high-level production technique. One electric locomotive consists of 5000-plus cables, 2000-plus cable joints, and 12000-plus bolts, and these components and parts should be connected manually. It seems simple but it is actually complicated. Operators shall be cautious during the operation process because one mistake may lead to locomotive paralysis. Technical Director of CSR Zhuzhou Wen Jianjun said: we have set up definite technical standards to every work process and step, so as to make employees know what is the final product as well as how to produce the product and ensure the product quality.

Wen Jianjun added: to ensure the quality consistency of Locomotive Export to Kazakhstan project and Locomotive Export to Uzbekistan project as well as improve the work efficiency, we specially made dozens of large samples to assist employees operation during the locomotive body production process. Therefore, employees placed these large samples on their worktables and then assembled cable and tube clamps in light of the uniform samples, which not only reduced the work time and improved the work efficiency by 800%, but also efficiently ensured the product quality s consistency.

In CSR Zhuzhou s 360-meter-long general assembly workshop, 13 locomotives customized for Uzbekistan and 22 locomotives exported to Kazakhstan are being produced in batch and in order. From the workshop to faraway horizon a shining railway is extending, and at the other end of the railway there is CSR Zhuzhou s dream of unceasing innovation. CSR Zhuzhou vows to accelerate its Walk out step so as to take the lead in global railway equipments industry.

It is both a necessary requirement and an overall trend for the central enterprises to accelerate their Walk out steps. Against the backdrop, CSR Zhuzhou clinched the historical opportunity arising from Chinese government s slogan Strongly Development Railway Infrastructure construction, and Rejuvenate Rail Transit Equipments Manufacture Industry to accelerate its implementation of Introduction and Walk out strategies. On the one hand, it strongly promoted technical innovations to develop the core technologies with independent intellectual property as well as to cultivate its brand image featuring strong competitiveness. On the other hand, it accelerated its Internationalization step and improved its international operation capacity, so as to transform from low-end manufacturing enterprise to high-end innovation enterprise , from application technology development to intensify strategic technology reserve , and from individual competition to strategic alliance . These transformations culminated in CSR Zhuzhou s characteristic competitiveness , said General Manager Xu Zongxiang who has a unique insight to the Walk out strategy.