China North Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry Corporation (CNR) has been disqualified from the NIS 1 billion multiyear Israel Railways procurement tender. Rolling stock manufacturers have been very interested in the tender for the supply locomotives and double-decker carriages, in view of the Israeli government's decision to invest more than NIS 10 billion in railway development under the National Transport Plan.
Railway sources said that the tender is built around figures from a single manufacturer.
CNR, a government-owned company, is one of the world's three largest manufacturers of rolling stock. It sought to participate in the Israel Railways tender, but failed to meet the qualifying condition of supplying at least 100 single-deck carriages to a European country.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that CNR has decided not to appeal to the Israeli courts because of a policy banning claims by government companies. CNR's Israeli representative Amos Yudan told "Globes" that the company meets the European standard, and that it was even willing to carry out part of the rolling stock production in Israel.
Israel Railways said in response that it was bound by the European standard.
Israel Railways also postponed by three weeks the deadline to submit bids in the tender, because of the large number of requests for clarifications and inquiries by the potential bidders. The tender will be closed on April 15.
The sources added that possible bidders include Germany's Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; XETRA: SIE) and Vossloh AG (XETRA:VOS), Canada's Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD), Czech Skoda Transportation sro, and Italy's Firema SpA.
The tender is for the procurement of 15 locomotives and 74 double-decker carriages beginning in 2012, with an option to increase the order to 22 locomotives and 122 carriages. The vendors must provide maintenance services for 7-10 years.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 8, 2010
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