BONATRANS SETTING UP A BUSINESS UNIT IN INDIA

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CZECH RAILWAY INDUSTRY AT IREE 2013

BONATRANS SETTING UP A BUSINESS UNIT IN INDIA

Powerful Czech Railway Industry is officially introduced at the 10th International Railway Equipment Exhibition (IREE) in New Delhi today. There are 9 Czech companies in the national exhibition, organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, presenting leading rail technologies, wheelsets, pneumatic and electric doors and traction motors and drives manufacturers, components for passenger and freight transport, innovative solutions in logistics and storage, railway infrastructure and more. One of the exhibitors,BONATRANS GROUP a.s., the largest manufacturer of railway wheelsets and their parts in Europe, announced that it is setting up a business unit in India, Bonatrans India Private Limited (“BIPL”). Among others, IREE 2013 exhibitors include ACRI Association, CSAD Uherske Hradiste, DAKO CZ,  Pars Komponenty, PROMAN, Skoda Electric, TOS Kurim OS and VUKV.

The Czech railway industry has an amazing more than 180-year tradition, thanks to innovations, the use of new technologies and high labour efficiency, which guarantees a stable position within Europe as a whole. The members of the Association of the Czech Railway Industry (ACRI) currently employ more than 22,000 people in the CzechRepublic and their annual turnover is more than EUR 3.3 billion, of which exports account for 47%. “The railway industry has always been pulling the Czech economy up, and nothing has changed,” said Marie Alžběta Vopálenská, Executive Director of ACRI.“Especially important are its export achievements. I am delighted to introduce the best Czech railway manufacturers in India today.”

Czech railway manufactures export most of their products and services to the EU, but increasingly also to Russia and Asia. Their products, such as train control systems, locomotives and tram cars, are of the highest European standard. Recently, railway wheels from Bonatrans can be found practically all over the world, and the same is true of anti-friction bearings from ZKL. Škoda Transportation signed a contract for the delivery of six sets of carriages and six locomotives to Deutsche Bahn Regio, and the delivery of tram cars to a number of European and non-European cities. LEGIOS, a manufacturer of freight wagons, has signed two important contracts in Turkey and France, CZ LOKO is busy trading with the Baltic states, Belarus, Russia and the Balkan states, AŽD Praha is modernising railways in Slovakia, the Balkans and Turkey.

Transport and infrastructure is one of the key development opportunities for the future. India is a large country where railways and airways play an important role, and this is exactly the area where Czech manufacturers have a lot to offer. 

Bonatrans Group, the largest manufacturer of railway wheelsets and their parts in Europe, announced today that it has set up a business unit: Bonatrans India Private Limited (“BIPL”) in Aurangabad. This relevant move reflects the huge importance and potential of the Indian railway market in the Bonatrans Group strategy. “After 20 years of continuous cooperation with Indian clients from the railway industry and seeing the growth of the railway sector in India we have made a step forward to be closer to our customers and to provide them with first-class products by BONATRANS manufactured in India,” said Jakub Weimann, Managing Director of Bonatrans Group.

Bonatrans Group has been a reliable supplier of Indian Railways, Indian train manufacturers as well as of the growing urban rail transport in India for several decades. Its products are used in the locomotives, coaches and EMU units of Indian Railways. Most of the new rolling stock for metros in Indian cities run on BONATRANS wheels.

Bonatrans India has been set up in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. After building and equipping with state-of-the-art technology, it will manufacture high-quality wheels, axles and wheelsets especially for passenger railway vehicles and locomotives, but potentially also freight wheelsets for heavy load freight wagons used on future Dedicated Freight Lines. The products will be based on world best practice in design, engineering and technology, but customised to specific Indian needs.

Czech exhibitors at IREE are presenting a wide range of innovative solutions based on tradition and high quality. Škoda Electric is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of traction and auxiliary drives and traction motors for trolleybuses, tramcars, locomotives, EMU, metro coaches and special mining trucks. The manufacturing program of Pars komponenty s.r.o. includes production of interior and exterior doors, pneumatic and electric door systems, windows, baggage racks, lifting platforms for disabled passengers and interior partitions for public transport passenger vehicles. Proman is the key supplier of rack systems for storage space in large railway warehouses and others. TOS Kurim is producing large milling machines and machining centres, which include gantry type machining centres with a table width of up to 8,000 mm and clearance between columns of up to 10,000 mm. DAKO CZ is producing brake systems for locomotives, freight cars, passenger coaches, metro cars and trams. VUKV is testing and developing a centre for railway vehicles, containers and transport engineering components with relevant advisory and consultancy services.CSAD Uherske Hradiste is a transportation and logistics expert, operating full-load truck (full-trailer loads, FTL) transportation across the world with customs clearance services, bonded warehouses and customs bonds.

The beginnings of Czech – Indian business relations date back to pre-war Czechoslovakia. The tradition of trade and industrial cooperation began with the supplying of machine tools, equipment for sugar mills and the construction of Bata shoe factories in places that still recall his name today. Czech companies were also traditional suppliers of diesel-generators, tools, textiles, leather and printing machinery and food processing technologies, and participated in the foundation of the Indian energy sector. The recent business balance between the Czech Republic and India is impacted by the Indian economic slowdown. In 2012, Czech exports to India were USD 656 million, 23.3% less than the previous year (USD 855 million), while Indian exports to the CzechRepublic were USD 596 million, a year-on-year decrease of 9.1%. Nevertheless, India is still one of the most important countries for Czech foreign trade with long-term growth opportunities and the second-most important trading partner in Asia (after China).

Miloslav Stasek

                                                                        Ambassador of the Czech Republic