Following turnout orders for high-speed lines in Taiwan and China, the voestalpine Group is now developing its leading position in the Far East’s fast-growing railway market still further with an order in South Korea.
Following turnout orders for high-speed lines in Taiwan and China, the voestalpine Group is now developing its leading position in the Far East’s fast-growing railway market still further with an order in South Korea. The German turnout technology company, voestalpine BWG, will supply 37 high-speed turnout systems in the coming year for South Korea’s most up-to-date high-speed line between Daegu and Busan in the southeast of the country. The order volume amounts to around EUR 26 million, deliveries will take place during the period between January to June 2009. The speed on the railway line, which is approximately 130 kilometres in length and which should be commissioned at the end of 2010, will be 350 km/h.
With this order, voestalpine BWG, already the standard equipment supplier to date for high-speed lines in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, is now also establishing itself as a leading supplier of turnouts for the promising Asian railway sector. It has already been possible in past years to implement a series of projects here. Successful development of the high-speed turnout systems business in the Far East was given a significant boost in Taiwan in 2003: voestalpine BWG supplied 147 turnouts with an order value of EUR 82 million for the Taipei - Kaohsiung line and since opening of the section in May 2005 has also been responsible for maintenance of the turnout systems which have been operated without a hitch to date.
Beyond this, voestalpine BWG also provided the turnout technology for the first three projects of this type in China. The order received in 2007 included the delivery of 319 special turnouts for three high-speed lines (order volume EUR 120 million), the first of which was opened this year in time for the Olympic Games and so far train operation here has also run smoothly.
The Chinese New Turnout Technology Co. Ltd. (CNTT) has been responsible for successful handling of this first high-speed track section in China - the line between Beijing and Tianjin. This 50:50 joint venture established in 2007 between voestalpine BWG/VAE and the national China Railway Shanhaiguan Bridge Group Co., Ltd. (CRSBG) is now the leading company in China in the field of high-speed turnout technology with a workforce of 90. In the case of projects implemented in China, CNTT takes over final assembly of the components produced in Germany by voestalpine BWG and manages on-site logistics. The current project on the track section between Wuhan - Guangzhou, will see the first turnout components produced in China within the framework of technology transfer to the joint venture.