出口国外引起广泛关注 中国北车走向世界

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.

上世纪80年代，英国铁路(British Rail)有一个脍炙人口的广告语：我们到了(We’re getting there)。英国铁路一度很有成功的希望，但却以失败告终。这家英国国有铁路运营商在上世纪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.

中国铁路业现在可能用得上这个广告语。上周四，中国国有机车制造商——中国北车(CNR)证实称，该公司赢得了为波士顿地铁系统（“T”地铁）建造地铁车辆的订单，合同价值5.67亿美元。该笔交易是中国公司在北美赢得的首个重大的基础设施合同。

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.

按收入计算，中国北车是中国最大的在香港上市机车设备制造商，去年以157亿美元的收入额勉强超过中国南车(CSR)。波士顿订单仅为该数字的3.6%，而且机车在2018年才开始交付，所以需要多年才能实现收入。因此，作为进军北美市场的第一步，这种重大胜利更多是精神上的，而非财务上的。

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.

但细节非常重要。中国北车提交的报价是所有竞标者中最低的：大约只有提出较高报价的庞巴迪(Bombardier)的一半。中国早先曾对外资制定过在华建设产能的前提条件，与之相呼应，中国北车承诺在美国建设一个机车组装工厂，而且本地化率要达到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.

中国北车的低报价重新引发了该公司与中国南车合并的讨论。有报道称，中国国务院担心这两家公司在海外展开竞争。而波士顿地铁的竞标细节甚至更耐人寻味。尽管质量上存在一些问题，但在技术标准上，中国北车击败了所有的对手。中国南车却在质量、技术和制造这三点上“不可接受”——在所有投标者当中，只有中国南车受到如此不利的认定。这令人担忧。