Bombardier to have Monorail Technology Center in the Country
O Estado de S. Paulo 10/01/10
The Canadian Bombardier announced yesterday the setting up of a technology center for the construction of monorails in Brazil. The unit will cater especially to the contract signed with the Government of São Paulo for the construction of a new line, called Expresso Tiradentes (Tiradentes Express, in English), which will work as an extension of Subway line #2. For the multinational, the deal will yield R$ 1.4 billion (US$ 823.5 million).The center of Bombardier will be built in the Industrial District of Hortolândia, in the interior of São Paulo, where the company already has a unit for the refurbishment of trains. The current area, in the past used by Cobrasma, will be doubled and the number of employees will become three times greater. By 2011, the company will have 600 employees in the Brazilian subsidiary, says the new President of the multinational in Brazil, André Guyvarch. The volume of investment in the industrial park has not disclosed. Nevertheless, it should stay below the amount spent by the company in the last plant built in India. That because Bombardier already has a structure installed in Hortolândia.
According to Guyvarch, Brazil will become an important monorail excellence center that will cater to all Latin America. The company will transfer the technology of the high-capacity model that will be used in Expresso Tiradentes to the new Brazilian unit. To do so, a group of up to 200 employees will be sent to Pittsburgh, in the United States, to follow up the manufacture of the first train (with 7 wagons). After that, they return to Brazil to build the other pieces of equipment and transfer the experience to the other employees. Altogether, the company will supply the Government of São Paulo with 54 trains of 378 cars.
According to the Director of Bombardier Transportation, Luis Ramos, the monorail of São Paulo will be the first in the world market. The train will have capacity to carry the same number of passengers and reach the same speed of the Subway of São Paulo. 40 thousand people per hour and per direction. The traveling time between Cidade Tiradentes and Vila Prudente, a 24-kilometer path, will be of 50 minutes, says Ramos. The difference between this monorail and the others is in the propulsion system.
Bombardier will be responsible for the project of the monorail, for the manufacturing and for the supply of all the mechanical and electrical system, which should go into operation in 2014. The civil works will be responsibility of the two other members of the winning consortium of the bidding of Expresso Tiradentes: OAS and Queiroz Galvão. Bombardier expects to nationalize 70% of all components used in the trains. According to the President of the company, the manufacturing of the monorail currently requires nearly 300 different suppliers. In the poll survey, he says, at least 80 suppliers were already installed in Brazil. The construction of a monorail technology center can be a great factor of attraction of investments for new companies in the country.
The Canadian unit may also be used in future for the production of high-speed trains, in case the company enters the dispute. According to Guyvarch, the company is holding conversations with some potential partners, but there's nothing closed so far.