International Railroad Discussion > EMD GT42AC for Botswana

Seem to be problems with this contract

"AMERICANS GET P375 MILLION DEAL FROM RAILWAYS
Meanwhile as the Botswana Railways top brass has to ward off corruption allegations levelled against the ‘organisation’, an American company, Electro Motive Diesel is demanding that it be furnished with a Letter of Credit for the manufacture and supply of eight locomotives.Botswana Railways has awarded the American company the deal at a value of $34 million. This publication has established that Botswana Railways paid 50 percent of the amount in September 2015 but has been dilly dallying when asked to produce the Letter of Credit. The New York based company has indicated that it will need 18 months to put the heads together and be in a position to supply.The deal between the two parties was supervised by attorneys from Collins Newman and they have since slapped Botswana Railways with a bill of P8 million, which the Botswana Railways Board had wanted to distance itself from only to realise that management had committed to the Law firm already. The negotiations and the deal were sealed at Rail Park mall last year."

http://www.weekendpost.co.bw/wp-news-details.php?nid=2280

Looks like Botswana Railways management also in deep excreta re the carriage deal with Transnet Engineering

http://www.sundaystandard.info/botswana-railways-crisis-ceo-confesses-coaches-are-not-new
 

$34mil US dollars seems an awful lot for only eight locos. As far as I know standard guage fully equipped locos on the USA are around $2 to 2.5 million each. Correct me if I am wrong. And Botswannas's locos should be less than standard guage, and why would they need AC traction? DC should be much cheaper. Are there mis-prints here, confusion with currency, or is someone getting 'bruised' to use a non-deletive comparison?  

Export locomotives generally command a premium over the much larger USDM locomotives. AC traction components for the same traction power as DC are generally lighter thus more suitable for export applications.

tp117 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> $34mil US dollars seems an awful lot for only
> eight locos. As far as I know standard gauge fully
> equipped locos on the USA are around $2 to
> 2.5 million each. Correct me if I am wrong. And
> Botswana's locos should be less than standard
> gauge, and why would they need AC traction? DC
> should be much cheaper. Are there mis-prints here,
> confusion with currency, or is someone getting
> 'bruised' to use a non-deletive comparison?  

Arn't third world countries entitled to enjoy the cost savings of AC traction? $4.25 mil is cheap for a AC/AC export loco

US domestic locos are cheap, nasty, heavy, and are churned out like sausages. Build a 3300HP AC traction loco weighing around 120 tonnes like those for Botswana, and you are fighting the laws of physics to keep the weight down. In Australia this requires extensive use of plastics for fans and shrouding, aluminum hoods and walkways. GE who have heavier engines also use carbon fibre in the battle to lower loco weight

Cape gauge in Australia as been transitioning to AC traction since 1999
The frames in the below EMD locos are incapable of supporting the loco weight unaided. Built into the long hood are a pair of open web joists, think of them as an E or F type with the side trusses moved inward
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downer_EDI_Rail_GT42CU_AC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downer_EDI_Rail_GT42CU_AC
You would expect to pay at least US$4.5 mil for one of these units

Transnet in South Africa have gone with GE since 2011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Class_43-000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Class_44-000

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-17/transnet-awards-locomotive-deal-to-four-companies-including-ge
http://metalworkingnews.info/transnet-awards-contracts-for-1-064-new-trains/
These announcements are in SA Rand, announced in March 2014. Since then the Rand has depreciated against the US$ by over 30%
Working on 1 USD = 10.54 ZAR for March 2014, so 233 locos @ R7.1 billion = US$673 mil, of which 223 will be kits for Transnet to assemble locally (not including frame, bogies or most of the labour charges for assembly, or overhead for the Koedoespoort plant)
Average US$2.9 mil a unit. Note that Transnet are paying around US$250k per loco premium for the 232 Chinese MTU 20V4000 engined units ordered at the same time!
This entire SA order is to be paid for using borrowed capital. Transnet revenue down around 20% for 2015, they are trying to negotiate the delivery window for these 1064 new locos out to at least 2022/3
 

That's easy, send them the locos, minus prime movers and generators.

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