Alstom Shares Prov Regroupement (AOMFF)

[mlkrborn]

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg)

Alstom SA is bidding to supply the world’s fastest train to China as the nation spends 5 trillion yuan ($732 billion) on new railways by 2020.
“In the coming years, China will need many, many more trains,” Philippe Mellier, president of Alstom’s transport sector, said in an interview in Beijing yesterday. The demand “is never ending.”
Alstom, the world’s second-biggest trainmaker, has offered the in-development 360 kilometers-per- hour (224 miles-per-hour) Automotrice Grande Vitesse, or AGV, train as it competes with Bombardier Inc. and domestic suppliers for Chinese contracts. The nation plans to extend its rail network to 120,000 kilometers by 2020, including 18,000 kilometers of high-speed lines.
“The budget is there,” said Mellier. “China has so many cities with more than 1 million people -- the potential is very big.”
The trainmaker is targeting opportunities nationwide, particularly in secondary cities adding new lines, he said. The company may also seek more partners in China.
Since 2007, Alstom has supplied CRH5 high-speed trains with partner Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. for lines connecting Beijing to northern cities including Shenyang, Harbin and Taiyuan.
Bombardier’s Chinese venture won a $4 billion contract in September to build 80 high-speed trains. Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, and Chinese partners received a 750 million-euro ($1 billion) order in March for 100 trains.
China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp. signed train-car orders worth 10.8 billion yuan in 2009, accounting for 53 percent of contracts nationwide, according to a company statement.

AGV Services

Alstom’s AGV, the world’s fastest conventional train in terms of designed commercial speed, is due to begin its first commercial services in Italy next year. A Chinese delegation led by a vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission has visited La Rochelle, France, where the train is built and tested, Mellier said. Talks are on-going, he said.
The French trainmaker, which first supplied electric locomotives to China in 1958, has sold more than 1,200 cars in Shanghai and at least 400 more in Nanjing.