Puente returns from China without a commitment to buy trains before visiting the Hitachi plant in Florence in a few days

The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Oscar Puenteconcludes this Saturday his official trip to Chinaduring which he visited the facilities of one of the largest train manufacturers in the world, China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), but without a closed commitment to acquire new rolling stock and especially to make the AVE circulate at 350 kilometers per hour on the line that connects Madrid and Barcelona.

The minister concluded the official trip this Saturday with a visit to the largest train manufacturer in the world, China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, a subsidiary of CRCC, which manufactures a train every 60 daysis capable of supplying the market with a thousand a year and has delivery times of between one and a half and two years, compared to the up to seven that a European manufacturer can take. Puente and the president of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, have arrived from Beijing to this industrial complex in the city of Changchun on a train that travels at 350 kilometers per hourlike those manufactured by the CRCC and in Spain they want to circulate between Madrid and Barcelona. It took three hours to travel a thousand kilometers.

For now, however, the Spanish delegation has limited itself to “generating synergies” with the Chinese manufacturer “given the possibility of incorporating technological solutions in Spain” to support the project so that AVEs circulate at 350 km/hthe Ministry has indicated in a note, in which it has indicated that the Chinese manufacturer “has begun an internationalization strategy for innovation projects and expansion of railway systems.”

The trip has allowed Puente to learn about the advances in China regarding materials, signaling or electrification and transfer the interest of Spain in “continuing to share knowledge and experiences in planning, maintenance, security, station management and technological development” in terms of railways, of which China is a world power, Transport has indicated.

A few weeks ago, the minister announced this trip to China as one more attempt to explore purchasing new trainsof which the railway network and Renfe have an increasing need, due to the increase in passengers that is particularly noticeable in High Speed ​​​​and in the forecasts that, when they can travel at 350 kilometers per hour between Madrid and Barcelona, more trains will be needed to respond to the foreseeable increase in frequencies on this line.

With 162,000 kilometers in length, China has one of the most extensive railway networks in the world and it is the first country in terms of High Speed ​​kilometers – behind Spain, as Puente usually emphasizes – and it also has one of the largest train manufacturers in the world, in which Transport had also focused its attention on the need to buy more trains – in addition to the fifty, especially for Cercanías, which are expected to begin operating next year – given the saturation of this market and the long supply periods.

It’s about trains less robust, that they would have a homologation process in Spain more complicated than those of a European manufacturer and a even more difficult maintenance. In addition, Brussels could quarantine a possible purchase of Chinese trains for receiving state aid from the Beijing Government, as is already being investigated in other EU countries. Despite all this, the Chinese option is in Puente’s eyes an alternative to the difficulties of shopping in Europeas he confirmed after his September visit to the factory Siemens in Dusseldorf, Germany. As a point in its favor, there would be the CRCC trains They are usually noticeably cheaper from those of European manufacturers. According to purchases of high-speed trains in recent years, each train costs around 27 million euros.

As happened after the visit to Siemens, the Transport delegation returns to Spain without a closed commitment to acquire new rolling stock in China. Next week he will explore the market again, again the European one, with a visit to the Hitachi factory in Florence, that supplies Iryo and which is currently Transport’s favorite. A few days ago, Puente explained that the plans are for Renfe to launch two public tenders at the beginning of next year, to buy trains in the short and medium termand it is still unknown if the Chinese manufacturer will present itself to any of them. At the moment, there is no evidence of purchase operations beyond the around five trains that Renfe hopes will be possible to acquire from Siemens from surplus contracts with other railway operators.

Manufacturing and approval

During his visit to China, Puente had the opportunity to visit the CRCC headquarters on Fridaywhich in the same way that it is a reference in the manufacture of trains, is also responsible for the construction of the vast railway network of this country. He reviewed “joint projects” in railway matters with his managers and certified “the good harmony” that exists around the AV350 projectthe renewal of the Madrid-Barcelona line that will allow trains to circulate 350 kilometers.

He also visited the train homologation center, the National Railway Track Test Center (NRTC), owned by the public railway manager, China State Railway Group. It is the only closed railway test circuit in all of Asia, with 61 kilometers of test track where trains and other technologies that operate on the Chinese high-speed network are tested. There, Puente was especially interested in advances in security systems. signage, electrification, security, digitalization and materials testing.

“Spain is in a moment of enormous expansion of its railway network and acquisition of new fleets of trains, with the challenges that this entails when incorporating them into circulation on the network,” the Ministry contextualized.

Spain as an air connection between China and Latin America

Before focusing on the railway field, Puente visited the Gotion factory in Hefei on Thursday, and on the first day of the visit, last Thursday, he visited the Gotion factory, specialized in design and manufacture of lithium-ion batteries electric vehicles and energy storage for industrial, commercial and residential purposes, which assured that it is “already planning” a plant in Valladolidthe city of which he was mayor.

Already in Beijing, the minister also met with his Chinese counterpart, Liu Weiwith whom he analyzed the bilateral relations and new possibilities for collaboration in rail and maritime transport, for the reduction of emissions in ships or the establishment of a new net zero emissions framework.

Also of cooperation in the aerial field, in which Puente celebrated the “commitment” that different companies have shown. Chinese airlines to expand their presence in Spainas a connection point to Latin America.