mtu and China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), the world’s largest rolling stock manufacturer, have decided to grow and deepen their successful partnership. A corresponding agreement has now been signed in Friedrichshafen by senior representatives of both companies. Among the matters of agreement is a commitment by CRRC to continue to consider mtu engines from Rolls-Royce as drive solutions in its locomotives and diesel railcars. The two companies also agreed to collaborate on future power delivery solutions, including hybrid drives and gas engines.
Dayong Chen, General Manager for International Business at CRRC, said: “This strategic partnership agreement is a major step forward in strengthening our successful collaboration with Rolls-Royce Power Systems and mtu.”
Andreas Schell, CEO of mtu parent company Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG, said: “We are proud that we are consistently convincing CRRC, one of the major players in the global rail market, of the quality of our drive solutions. Our close working relationship has been established firmly in recent years, and this agreement puts it on a new footing – something which is going to benefit both partners, and our customers as well.”
The agreement references, in particular, the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (also colloquially known as the ‘New Silk Road’), the infrastructure plan of the People’s Republic of China to expand and enhance its connections with Asia, Europe and Africa with the aim of stimulating and improving the movement of goods. To achieve this, China is looking to invest the equivalent of hundreds of billions of euros in the infrastructure of many countries in these regions, and CRRC is playing a key role in this.
The highly productive relationship between Rolls-Royce and CRRC goes back many years and has seen CRRC order around 500 mtu Series 4000 engines for locomotives used by customers in New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa.
The partnership agreement was signed at the mtu Rail Symposium which attracted a total of 135 mtu business associates from 26 countries to Friedrichshafen to engage in discussions on current developments at mtu and the future of the rail market.
