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Bombardier Railcar Joint-Venture to Kick Off Production in Qingdao
The Bombardier Sifang Power (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd. (BSP), a Sino-Canadian railcar joint venture in east China's Shandong Province, will become operational next month.
President and chief executive officer of the Canadian Bombardier Inc., Robert E. Brown, who is part of the entourage of the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, inspected the progress of the joint venture's construction this morning.
"Our cooperation with China has been going on well. A lot of negotiations are now underway with the Chinese companies. We know that anything has its own pace, and everything so far has been going well," said Brown in Qingdao.
Jointly founded in November 1998 by Qingdao Sifang Bus Manufacturing Plant, Bombardier and the Canadian Power Investment Co., BSP is dedicated to the design, development and manufacturing of intercity and high-speed passenger rail cars, metro cars and light-rail vehicles.
In 1999, BSP received a 345 million U.S. dollar order for 300 intercity passenger rail cars from the Ministry of Railways of China and the Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Zhengzhou, and Shenyang railway administration bureaus.
With the official production to start in March, the first delivery can be expected at the beginning of March 2002.
"I have been encouraged by what I have seen in China. It has changed so fast, we are positive about our business expansion in China," Brown said.
To date, some US$72 million of investment has been spent on BSP's expansion. The plant now covers 150,000 square meters with a building area of some 50,000 square meters.
With the anticipated production, employment of the BSP manufacturing plant is expected to grow from around 300 at the start-up period to about 1,300 by the end of 2001. Some 50 Chinese engineers and managing staff of BSP will gain first-hand Bombardier technology experience by attending training programs in France and Canada.
Brown expressed the wish to extend Bombardier's cooperation with China in various fields.
Bombardier Inc., a diversified manufacturing and service company, is composed of five companies. It is a world-famous manufacturer of business jets, regional aircraft, rail transportation equipment and motorized recreational products. The corporation employs 56,000 workers in 12 countries and more than 90 percent of its revenue is generated from outside Canada.
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