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Order Received for Rolling Stock Main Equipment for China

Feb. 4, 2003

TOKYO(February 4, 2003)--Nissho Iwai Corporation has received an order for a complete set of rolling stock main equipment, including rolling stock electric equipment manufactured by Toshiba Corporation and brake systems manufactured by NABCO Ltd., which will be loaded onto 48 urban railway rolling stock scheduled to run on the urban railway (Wuhan Urban Railway Construction Project Line 1) currently under construction by Wuhan Rail Transit Co., Ltd. Deliveries to the largest rolling stock manufacturer in China will commence from June this year.

Nissho Iwai has a record of receiving orders from China in the past; for air-conditioning equipment for 224 rolling stock for the Beijing Urban Railway Construction Project in 2001, and for electric equipment for 116 rolling stock for the Tianjin-Binhai Mass Transit Construction Project in May last year. Negotiations concerning the latest contract for the large rolling stock equipment led to the order being awarded to Toshiba and Nissho Iwai jointly in consecutive years.

There is rapid growth in the number of automobiles and motorcycles in Chinese urban areas, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and damage to the environment from exhaust gases and noise pollution is becoming a major issue. Under such circumstances, construction of urban railways that reduces exhaust gases and noise pollution is being accelerated through a Japanese government program to extend yen-denomination loans. As part of such movement, bids were called for this contract in September 2002.

The 48 urban railway rolling stock, for which Nissho Iwai received the order, will be used in the first phase of Line 1 (about 10-km long) from Zongguan to Huangpu Road. Wuhan Rail Transit is planning to commence its operation in October 2004. During 2003, bids are scheduled to be invited for rolling stock main equipment, which will extend the number of rolling stock to be used in the second phase to 100. With this order receipt as a foothold, Nissho Iwai will aim not only at receiving an order for rolling stock main equipment for the second phase of the Wuhan Urban Railway Construction Project, but also to increase order receipts of the same kind for urban railways which are planned for construction in other major cities in China. 

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