Passenger Trains > Chinese seek to acquire control of Bombardier Rail

China trainmakers seek control of Bombardier's rail unit: sources
Reuters
By Benjamin Kang Lim and Matthew Miller
Wed Apr 29, 2015

> (Reuters) - China's top two trainmakers have been in discussions with
> Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO) about possibly buying a controlling stake in
> the Canadian company's railway unit, two sources with direct
> knowledge of the matter said.
>
> China CNR Corp Ltd (601299.SS) and state-owned CSR Corp Ltd
> (601766.SS), now in the process of merging to create the world's
> biggest railway company, are exploring a stake purchase of the
> Bombardier unit, complementing China's plan to sell its high-speed
> rail technology abroad, the sources said.
>
> But discussions cannot move forward until after the Chinese
> trainmakers complete a planned $26-billion merger next month, said a
> person close to one of the Chinese companies.
>
> Canada's Bombardier has been exploring a possible sale of all or part
> of its railway business as it seeks to pay for the huge cost overruns
> in its aircraft business, Reuters reported this month.

Full story:

China trainmakers seek control of Bombardier's rail unit



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/15 13:00 by GenePoon.

It will be interesting to see if Canada invokes its "national resource" doctrine to block a take over. Or if it decides rail technology isn't sufficiently important to protect. It would be a great opportunity for the Chinese to crack the Canadian / US market, though

The task for the Chinese will not be to "crack" the American market but to create a market. The reason American companies died is because there has been such an anemic passenger rail car market.

Doesn't Bombardier own Budd's stainless passenger car designs? If the Chinese bid is succesful, might we see these time-tested designs dusted off and released with minor adjustments like ADA access and modern gagetry support?

* JB *

korotaj Wrote:
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> The task for the Chinese will not be to "crack"
> the American market but to create a market. The
> reason American companies died is because there
> has been such an anemic passenger rail car market.

The Chinese haven't sold anything in the US or Canada under their own name ever, as far as I know.  Bombardier rail has delivered several hundred multilevel cars to NJ Transit in the past decade, and competed on several other contracts. That's a decent amount of business.

Getting the Bombardier name on their bid would be a plus [for the Chinese], as I see it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/15 05:43 by Lackawanna484.

This would be great, but only if the quality of the
newly Chinese-controlled company's products are
as good as what they do in their space program.
They actually soft-landed a spacecraft on the Moon
not all that long ago.

What do the experts here think of the quality of
Chiinese-made rail equipment? 

Of course one has to remember that most of the Bombardier made rail equipment really has very little to do with the original Bombardier rail equipment operations. Most of their stuff is derived now from the intellectual property that came with Bombardier's European acquisitions. I am not sure that any of their most popular products use much of anything from theor American intellectual property portfolio at all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/15 08:03 by Jishnu.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> korotaj Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> The Chinese haven't sold anything in the US or
> Canada under their own name ever, as far as I
> know. 

The MBTA has ordered new subway cars from CNR, a Chinese manufacturer.

Dave
 

korotaj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The task for the Chinese will not be to "crack"
> the American market but to create a market. The
> reason American companies died is because there
> has been such an anemic passenger rail car market.

That is just so untrue and misleading.  There have been many thousands of new passenger cars built since the mid-1980's when Budd left the business.

> What do the experts here think of the quality of
> Chiinese-made rail equipment? 
I'm no technical expert, but I've ridden it, FWIW. It's smooth, fast, and quiet.

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