Original text:

Chinese Brands Make an Instant Success in Argentina

“I am very lucky that I have taken part in such a big project upon my graduation, and it is a very good learning platform. Xiao Yao, a manager of the first phase of the Argentine Belgrano freight railway renovation project undertaken by CMEC affiliated to Sinomach looks young and composed. “The reasons why I think it is a big project are: 1. It involves a large amount of money (USD2.47 billion). 2. It is of great significance as it is the largest cooperative transport project between China and Argentina and has attracted high attention from the governments and leaders of the two countries.”

The first phase of the project mainly involves using China-made railway equipment including rolling stock as well as railway materials such as steel rails, sleepers and fasteners to renovate the existing 1,500km-long railway, connecting major grain producing areas and main ports of Argentina and its northern neighboring countries. The Belgrano freight railway, an important passage for grain transportation in Argentina, was built as early as in 1876. However, due to lack of maintenance, most of the road sections have fallen into disuse, and only 1,500km out of the total 7,409km roads is available for operation. “What we will renovate is the most important trunk line. We inspected the entire railway line, finding that at some sections there only two rail railroad tracks are left, some railroads are flooded, the trains travel very slowly at a speed of about 20km/h and often run off the rails. Therefore, lots of enterprises have to choose road transportation which has higher transportation cost, and there tend to be heavy traffic jams at the roads leading to ports.”

It is not difficult for Chinese builders to renovate a railway, what is difficult is that “the Argentine side does not accept our self-developed products”. How to solve the problem? Seeing is believing.

In November 2014, Xiao guided a group of Argentine engineers represented by Mariano to visit China for factory inspection. During the 7-day tour, they visited more than 10 manufacturing enterprises including Wuhan Iron & Steel Group, CRRC and Liaoning Zizhu Group. “At Wuhan Iron & Steel Group, Mariano was amazed at the 100m-long steel rails produced in one shot by the tandem rolling equipment and said they want to use such rails in the future.

In August 2015, Xiao led another group of Argentine engineers including Mariano to visit China, and they required to go to an ordinary city after visiting Beijing and Shanghai. “I led them to Ziyang, a city in Sichuan Province, and was convinced by seeing that the world-class equipment are manufactured and successfully shipped out of the remote place,” said Xiao. In 2015 alone, Mariano visited China for three times in his own name and in the capacity of Argentine engineer of the Belgrano freight railway project. Also, he brought his teachers to look around for sleepers and conduct experiments at university laboratories. “He always enjoyed it as there are lots of things that Argentina has not,” said Xiao. 

Thanks to continuous learning, Mariano has grown from a civil construction engineer with some theoretical knowledge to the chief technical officer of the Argentina National Railway Corporation and gives lectures on railroad engineering in a university. According to Xiao, “Argentina was previously a major country in railway. However, foreign investors did neither build new railway lines nor maintain the existing railway lines after the railway privatization reform, resulting in a talent gap. The Argentine engineers represented by Mariano, by taking part in the first phase of the Belgrano freight railway project, have widen their knowledge on world-class railway equipment and construction technologies, accumulated experience in practical operations of large projects and become a new backbone force.”

Xiao grew up rapidly during the period. “I am a Spanish learner and was an interpreter when I began to work for the project, in charge of external liaison and public relations. At that time, I worked together with Chinese experts and learnt a lot from them, I passed on what I had learned from Chinese experts to Argentine experts, often visited the construction site and lost no time to learn more specialized knowledge,” said Xiao. Now, Xiao is not only the field manager of the first phase of the project, but also serves as deputy manager of CMEC’s power transmission and transformation project in Uruguay, and is praised by his colleagues as an “expert in Argentine railway freight”. 

A broad-gauge locomotive independently designed and manufactured by China arrives in Argentina.

As the railway renovation project was implemented by stages, 3,500 freight trains and 107 internal combustion locomotives independently designed and manufactured by China have been delivered, the operating speed and stability of the freight trains on the Belgrano railway line have been significantly improved, and the annual freight volume has increased from 760,000 tons in 2013 to 2,650,000 tons at present. By the railway, the agricultural products such as high-quality soybean, wheat and corn are once again shipped from Argentina, the world’s granary, to all over the world, the freight has been reduced by 80%, and their competitiveness and capacity to earn foreign exchange through exports in the international market have been significantly improved. The head of the Argentina Railway Freight Corporation said that Argentine railways are getting a rebirth and are of positive strategic significance to employment, foreign exchange earnings, and improvement of trade balance of the country.

On June 12, the construction of the first phase of the Belgrano freight railway project was successfully completed, creating over 4,800 direct jobs and over 18,000 indirect jobs for eight provinces along the railway. “We often see local residents pose for photos with Chinese railway equipment along the freight railway line,” said Xiao. What makes him feel happier is that the project makes more and more Argentine railway engineers learn about Chinese railway equipment, railway materials and Chinese standard, and impressed by Chinese products for their excellent quality, timely and considerate after-sales services, and moderate price. “It can be said that Chinese brands have made an instant success in Argentina and achieved good social benefits. Mariano said that he will visit China in September this year to purchase materials and negotiate about other projects,” said Xiao.

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