ContiTech Wins Order Worth Millions in China

April 2010The new China Railways CRH1 high-speed train is being equipped with air spring systems from ContiTech. In doing so, ContiTech is strengthening its position in China’s rail technology sector.

China intends to further improve its rail transport system with increasingly efficient high-speed trains. With speeds of up to 380 km/h, the CRH1 has a central role to play in this strategy. ContiTech Railway Engineering (CRE), the rail technology unit of ContiTech Air Spring Systems, will supply air spring systems for 50 of the new high-speed trains.

The trains are being developed by ContiTech’s key customer, Bombardier Transportation, the world’s largest manufacturer of rail equipment headquartered in Berlin. Its Chinese joint venture Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd. (BST) is in charge of delivering the high-speed trains. The trains are based on the latest BOMBARDIER ZEFIRO high-speed technology.

“We are a supplier very much in demand. For the Chinese customer it was very important that the air spring systems measure up to a high standard and that they be partially manufactured in China,” says Friedrich Hoppmann, head of the ContiTech Railway Engineering segment. The first parts will be delivered to China starting in the fall of 2010. All the trains are to have been built by 2014.