Summary：One of the most successful foreign companies in the rail transportation equipment industry, Bombardier is sharing its technological prowess and expanded product portfolio via partnerships with local peers in China

It has seven joint ventures and eight wholly owned subsidiaries in the country, which involve a combined total of 7,000 Chinese staff members.

They supply high-speed trains, metro vehicles, monorail trains, automated people mover systems and rail vehicle maintenance services to the Chinese market.

Bombardier and its joint ventures sign more than 20 large-scale projects a year, generating $3 billion to $5 billion in annual revenue, according to the company.

Since the Montreal, Canada-based enterprise first entered the Chinese rail transportation market, it has delivered more than 30,000 rail vehicles, locomotives and propulsion systems in China. These include more than 3,500 high-speed rail cars and intercity passenger-train cars, 580 electric locomotives and over 2,000 metro cars.

The company provides maintenance services to 1,600 metro cars traveling on China's growing urban mass transit networks.

Bombardier supplies automated people mover systems to four major Chinese cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangdong province's Guangzhou. It has delivered tram cars to Nanjing and Suzhou in Jiangsu province and has just won its first monorail contract, of 240 cars, in Wuhu, Anhui province.

More than 14,000 Bombardier bogies - which make up the lower sections of such vehicles - are used for railway and urban mass transit vehicles.

Bombardier propulsion equipment is largely supplied to other third-party metro car builders and are used in more than 10,000 rail vehicles in 24 Chinese cities.

Bombardier NUG Propulsion System, a Bombardier joint venture known as BNP, has a leading market share in the field of metro propulsion in China.

Shining achievements

China is the world's top builder of railways and urban transit lines. No other country has ever witnessed the scale and speed of the expansion of tracked transport systems that China is experiencing, and the country is unparalleled in terms of market size, business potential, scale of demand, product variety and number of users, according to industry analysts.

"China's railway and urban mass transit markets present the most fierce competition in the world," said Zhang Jianwei, president of Bombardier China. "Advanced technology, proven products, and respect for commitment are key to our success."

In January, Bombardier's joint venture CRRC Puzhen Bombardier Transportation Systems, also known as PBTS, began to deliver its Innovia APM 300 vehicles to Shanghai.

Shanghai Shentong Metro Group Co Ltd placed the order in June 2015, which involves a turnkey APM system along with 44 Innovia APM trains - a total of 300 vehicles.

PBTS won a contract in June to provide an Innovia APM 300 system to the Hong Kong Airport Authority.

The joint venture has also been awarded a monorail contract. It will provide its Innovia Monorail 300 platform together with a total of 240 cars and switches for urban rail transit lines in Wuhu.

Another Bombardier joint venture, Bombardier Sifang Transportation, was awarded a contract by China Railway Corp in March to supply 144 CRH1A-A new-generation cars - high-speed trains - set to be operated by the Chengdu and Kunming railway bureaus.

One month later, another order of 40 CRH1A-A cars was awarded, which are to be operated by the Nanning Railway Bureau.

In May, the joint venture Shentong Bombardier (Shanghai) Rail Transit Vehicle Maintenance Co Ltd was awarded two contracts with Shanghai Shentong Metro Group Co Ltd to provide 10-year overhaul services for 498 metro cars operating on Shanghai Metro's lines 7 and 9.

Since January 2017, BNP has signed four new contracts and won six new public bids to provide the Mitrac propulsion and control equipment for 2,662 metro cars in 12 cities, including Shanghai, Nanchang, Chengdu and Chongqing.

To date, 24 cities in China have chosen Bombardier propulsion and control systems to power their expanding urban mass transit networks.

Besides its booming rail transportation businesses in China, Bombardier's business in the aircraft sector is also in a leading position.

The Canadian company has delivered 135 business jets to China, representing one-third of the market share, and more than 40 commercial aircraft in the country, Zhang said.

Years ago, Bombardier applied its energy, efficiency, economy and ecology concept, called ECO4, to its high-speed trains.

Since early 2017, Zhang has talked about Bombardier Ecosystem, which analyses market clusters in terms of economic environment, infrastructure, existing railway market solutions and future opportunities, to identify significant opportunities for selling its mobility solutions and core capabilities in the value chain to meet customers' needs.

Win-win strategy

"We are not afraid of competition, because in many cases, competition and cooperation coexist," Zhang said. "We work together with our partners, seeking long-term, win-win results."

"In business negotiations and cooperation between Chinese and Western companies, more than 50 percent of issues are caused by miscommunication and misunderstanding, rather than conflicts of interest," he noted. "This is because of the differences in the ways of doing business, as well as different cultures and languages."

"To achieve a win-win result, it is important to know and to understand the real interest of your counterparts, and to think from their perspective.

 

"We seek for a sustainable success in China and we are confident in a long-term, win-win partnership with China."