AusRAIL 2010 Exclusive Interview - Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric Co. Ltd.

AusRAIL is now a truly global event, and there is rapidly growing interest in the Australian rail market from China. One of the major suppliers from the Chinese market is Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric Co Ltd, who exhibited at AusRAIL 2010 and will return again with a greater presence at AusRAIL PLUS 2011. The following interview was recorded during the 2010 exhibition in Perth, and examines some of the key motivations behind their presence at the event, the benefits to Australia of the increased competition Chinese companies can provide, and their plans to build on their experiences at AusRAIL 2010.

Hello Mr Jiang, welcome to AusRAIL 2010. So this is your first time exhibiting at AusRAIL?
Yes.

How's it going so far?
It's going very well. The exhibition is very organised and orderly. We can see that AusRAIL is an internationally highly attended event. We feel that our involvement at AusRAIL 2010 is a definite must -- it's just a shame that we hadn't gotten onboard earlier!

Could you introduce us to the products that you brought here today?
Of course. I would like to introduce our parent company CSR and our subdivision Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric -- TEC. CSR is the largest manufacturer for rail locomotives in China and TEC is the largest manufacturer for rail locomotive transmission systems. Our products range includes national railway locomotives, electric locomotives, diesel locomotives, high-speed EMU and the metro. We also designed and manufactured the 380km/hr EMU which is in full business operation at the moment in China. The products we brought to the exhibition today are mainly parts from the control systems of diesel locomotives, because we think they would be suited to the demand of the Australian market, where diesel locomotives play a major role. The performance and quality of our products are widely recognised in China and we have attractive prices and excellent customer service to match.

You've come a long way from China. Would you say it's because of the lucrative Australian market?
Well, a lucrative market is just one of the many reasons. China has been an open market for sometime: Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier, GE, EMD... the majority of the big international players have been involved in the railway development in China. Having grown up in such diverse business environment, we feel that CSR and TEC too should expand to our international market. We hope to put a strong foothold in the Australian market -- this will not only be beneficial to CSR and TEC as we are expanding our customer base, it will also be beneficial to the Australian market as there will be even more diversity and choice.

Would you recommend your industry peers in China to come to Australia to exhibit at future AusRAIL events?
We definitely will. In fact, we've been recommended in the past. Two year ago, CSR came to AusRAIL with a small team. Our feedback wasn't as good as we hoped, perhaps due to the fact that people didn't know much about Chinese organisations back then. Our goal this year is to introduce ourselves to the Australian market. Next year we will have an even bigger exhibition stand -- seven to eight times bigger -- where we will showcase many more of our products, eventually building a solid foundation for the future for us in Australia. And I'm sure other Chinese organisations will follow suit too. Where else is better to do this than at AusRAIL -- a high quality showcasing platform in the Australian open market?

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