出口國外引起廣泛關注 中國北車走向世界

In the 1980s, British Rail had a catchphrase: We’re getting there. Hopeful but, in the end, a failure. The state-owned railway operator was broken up and privatised in the 1990s.

上世紀80年代，英國鐵路(British Rail)有一個膾炙人口的廣告語：我們到了(We’re getting there)。英國鐵路一度很有成功的希望，但卻以失敗告終。這家英國國有鐵路運營商在上世紀90年代被分拆和私有化。

China’s railway industry might have a use for the slogan now. On Thursday, state-owned locomotive maker China CNR confirmed it had won a $567m order for rolling stock for Boston’s subway system, the ‘T’. The deal is the first significant infrastructure win for a Chinese company in North America.

中國鐵路業現在可能用得上這個廣告語。上週四，中國國有機車製造商——中國北車(CNR)證實稱，該公司贏得了爲波士頓地鐵系統（“T”地鐵）建造地鐵車輛的訂單，合同價值5.67億美元。該筆交易是中國公司在北美贏得的首個重大的基礎設施合同。

CNR is China’s largest Hong Kong-listed railway equipment manufacturer by revenues, squeaking past CSR with sales of $15.7bn last year. The Boston deal amounts to a mere 3.6 per cent of this figure and, with delivery starting in 2018, will take several years to arrive. So, as a first step into the North American market, the win is more sentimentally than financially significant.

按收入計算，中國北車是中國最大的在香港上市機車設備製造商，去年以157億美元的收入額勉強超過中國南車(CSR)。波士頓訂單僅爲該數字的3.6%，而且機車在2018年纔開始交付，所以需要多年才能實現收入。因此，作爲進軍北美市場的第一步，這種重大勝利更多是精神上的，而非財務上的。

But the details are important. China CNR submitted the lowest price of all the bidders: about half the price of Bombardier at the high end. And in an echo of China’s early preconditions for foreigners establishing production capacity in China, the company pledged to build a plant in the US for the rolling stock assembly and to use 60 per cent local content in production.

但細節非常重要。中國北車提交的報價是所有競標者中最低的：大約只有提出較高報價的龐巴迪(Bombardier)的一半。中國早先曾對外資制定過在華建設產能的前提條件，與之相呼應，中國北車承諾在美國建設一個機車組裝工廠，而且本地化率要達到60%。

China CNR’s lowball bid may reignite debate regarding a merger with peer CSR. China’s State Council reportedly worries about competition between the two for offshore work. And here the bid detail becomes even more interesting. Despite some questions of quality, on technical criteria China CNR beat all the competition. China CSR was “unacceptable” on three points (quality, technical and manufacturing) – the only bidder to receive such an unfavourable verdict. Worrisome.

中國北車的低報價重新引發了該公司與中國南車合併的討論。有報道稱，中國國務院擔心這兩家公司在海外展開競爭。而波士頓地鐵的競標細節甚至更耐人尋味。儘管質量上存在一些問題，但在技術標準上，中國北車擊敗了所有的對手。中國南車卻在質量、技術和製造這三點上“不可接受”——在所有投標者當中，只有中國南車受到如此不利的認定。這令人擔憂。