MANILA, Philippines – China’s CRRC-Dalian Co., the largest train manufacturer in the world, has expressed its interest to bid for big-ticket rail projects in the Philippines.
Top officials of CRRC- Dalian Co. Ltd. visited the Philippines recently to affirm their “solid intent to participate in the modernization of the Philippine rail transport system”.
Together with its parner CGC Worldwide Inc., CRRC-Dalian will participate in railway expansion and modernization projects, especially the North-Southrail project and the proposed Manila-Clark railway line and the Clark Subic cargo line.
At present, CRRC-Dalian is the contracted supplier of 48 new train coaches to MRT Line 3 which will help increase the 13-station, 16.9-kilometer commuter line’s current daily capacity to 800,000 passengers from 350,000 passengers by 2017.
Chuanyi Zhou, CRRC-Dalian deputy general manager, described the Philippines as the latest magnet for the world’s top locomotive industry players.
“Our company wants to establish a foothold here well ahead of the others because this is one market we do not want to lose,” Zhou said.
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Zhou said the company has overtaken its rivals in Europe, Asia, and North America in their traditional markets.
As such, he said it does not make sense for the company to fail in a country that it considers a valued friend and neighbor.”
“We are determined to bring to the Philippines which we regard as a sustainable new market the most modern, safest, and the most technologically superior train coaches and rail network at prices no one among our competition can match,” Zhou said.
CRRC’s reputation as a world class railway supplier capable of winning lucrative overseas contracts received a major boost when it bagged in 2014 a $566 million deal to make 284 subway rail cars for the City of Boston, beating Canada’s Bombardier.
