Sunday, August 5, 2012

No. 580: Japanese high-speed rail trains go to Great Britain (August 4, 2012)

Business trend:
Hitachi officially got an order for 596 high-speed rail trains from Great Britain. They are for the high-speed railway departing from London for Edinburgh of Scotland, etc. The contract amounts to 550 billion yen including the maintenance service of the trains for 30 years. It is Hitachi’s biggest order from the railway business abroad. The company will build a manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe in Great Britain to start the production in 2016.

In the world railway business, Siemens of Germany, Alstom of France, and Bombardier of Canada have a combined share of more than 50%. Each of them enjoys an established reputation thanks to the ability to provide integrated business including trains, maintenance, and traffic management. Japanese companies including Hitachi are one step behind them because of the inability to provide an integrated service. Hitachi plans to build a manufacturing plant in India and Brazil to satisfy growing demand for railway improvement in newly industrialized countries. 

An image of the high-speed rail trains
that Hitachi will ship to Great Britain 

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