Chances of exporting the high-speed rail technology look tiny

Government officials flaunted the high-speed rail program as the crowning glory of the country’s technological and economic superiority. Even United States President Barack Obama looked at Chinese rail system as a model for America’s own rail upgrade. All of this changed after the crash and other glitches that were found in the rail system. The Chinese government had a lot of plans for the future of their high-speed rail. They planned on expanding it all over China and also export the technology to other countries. It all seemed coming along well until the crash at Whanzou that also crashed all the dreams and hopes of Chinese government.

Chinese rail suppliers, who helped build the world’s largest bullet train network in less than a decade, now struggle to sell equipment overseas after two locomotives collided killing at least 39 people.

The train makers include CSR Corp.’ China CNR Corp.’ China Railway construction Corp. and some parts made by Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric Co. They challenged European and Japanese suppliers overseas, touting experienced gained from construction of the nation’s domestic network. The fatal crash undermined their sales pitches as well as their confidence of exporting and competing overseas.

Countries who were planning on importing China’s rail system now are being a little more hesitant. They want to know for sure that the rail system is safe. They are giving much more importance to safety now. Ryota Himeno, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley securities Co. said, “ There’s probably little chance of China winning high-speed train order in the U.S”. CSR had many overseas orders including one from Malaysia according to its annual report. CSR dropped approximately 8.9 percent after the collision while China CNR fell 4.1 percent, China Rail Construction builder of more than half of the nation’s rail links since 1949 tumbled 5 percent. Looking at all this it looks hard for CSR to keep their overseas orders.

Although after the collision China has been working very hard to come clean and keep its name good in high-speed rail industry. They fired high officials who were blamed for being involved in corruption. They also slowed down their speed of building the rail system keeping in mind the safety issues. They are trying hard to work their way to the top again so theirs hopes for the high-speed rail won’t be crashed with the collision.

Edwin Merner president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo said “their chances of selling high-speed trains are zero”. As harsh it may sound and no matter how disappointing it is to he Chinese this is the truth. No one in the world would want trains from a country that couldn’t even handle their own rail system. Not only the crash but many other small and large glitches have been encountered in the rail system. Corruption played a big part in the downfall of the rail system.  If this system would have been implemented the same way but just with a little more care and honesty keeping in mind its bright future above selfish motives it would have in true sense been the pride of China.