Globalisation And Innovation In China Research Paper Sample

(Rail transport industry)

Introduction .3

Chinese railway industry overview..4
Structure and geography examination..5

Global competitiveness of Chinese rail transport7

Governmental regulation11
The role of foreign investments and foreign technology.11
Conclusion14

Bibliography.15

Introduction
China has promptly expanded its domestic railway network, mastered the technology of high-speed transport and due to these indicators has become a world leader. Being high-speed technology exporter China draws different schemes on the map of Eurasia, so called "Silk Roads". Formally, the first railway in China was built during the British colonial rule in 1825 and connected the city of Tangshan and Syugechzhuan.
In general, the development of high-speed rail in China has a number of strategic objectives. First objective is China's infrastructural development, improving internal communications and "stitching" of the country. Secondly, it is the speed modernization - anti-crisis plan to reorient the economy toward domestic consumption. Third, it is high-speed modernization of developing not only the transport network but also promoting the development of the state related industries: metallurgy, mechanical engineering, power engineering, computer science, and electronics. Fourthly, there are also purely manufacturing benefits such as linking the industrial area of China: the deltas of the Yangtze and Pearl and Promregion Bohai Gulf.
Therefore the study of the rail transport industry in China deserves the appropriate attention. Most experts believe that the great innovation and globalization of this industry in China is just a step forward to the global Chinese expansion. Recently, China launched its first railway outside the country which was regarded as the first step of invading the global rail transport market.
Chinese railway industry overview
China's railway transport is the most widely used form of transport for traveling over the long distances in the country. Almost all railway operations in mainland of China are led by the Ministry of Railways of China. The railway network (standard gauge - 1435 mm) with a total length of 78,000 km over the whole country, which is the second one after such countries as United States and Russia.
The key forces that support the development of the Chinese railway transport include:
Energy savings potential;
Urgent social demand;
The strong container transportation market;
Central government's supportive policies (Chinese Railway Transportation: Opportunity and Challenge, 2007).
Since 2007 China's railway owns about 578,000 wagons, 44,000 coaches and 18,300 locomotives. Chinese railways are daily used by more than 36,300 trains including about 3,000 passenger trains and freight 33300. Today the network serves all provinces with the exception of Macau.
The share of China's railway transport accounts for about 13% of the total freight traffic in the country. In this case rail has a dominant position in the market for certain types of goods. The railways carry 75% of coal, 66% of the ore, 62% of rolled steel and 56% of grain cargoes in thee country.
New construction and advanced technologies are crucial for bringing the opportunities of China's railways to the requirements of a developed economy. Statistics indicate that the increase in traffic volumes and turnover share of railways in China on the market of cargo and passenger traffic declined from 60% in 1980 to 40% by 2001, largely due to the fact that investment in rail infrastructure development road lagged behind the development of the necessary background on the base of motor transport and competition of domestic airlines.
Analyzing the current situation on the global rail market it can be stated that the Chinese railways turnover has totally increased by about 5-6% over the last twenty years, while passenger traffic increased by 8-9% as well. Comparison of the mentioned above data shows that along with other world powers China has always remained in more or less stable position. Despite the fact that Chinese railways occupy a leading position by the number and quality of railways all over the world, the problems of improving the competitiveness of railway transport in China are still relevant today.
Structure and geography examination
The structure of the Chinese railways is not the most complicated one; therefore, it definitely deserves the praise for its efficiency and transparency. The examination of the rail transport in China helped to outline the following patterns:
Local Railways, under the jurisdiction of local authorities, which may include provincial governments or municipal administrations;
Industrial Railways, under the jurisdiction of the industrial enterprises or other organizations that provide their own rail transport usually within their territories;
Private railway companies: railway lines run by companies or other organizations associated with other railway lines.
In the geographical structure the most important is the Geography Information System. “Geographic Information System (GIS) is a new technology of geography which has been rapidly developing from 1960s. Considering the present situation of Chinese railway network, the most advanced geographic information system software platform Mapinfo is chosen here for the research. This platform system has fairly efficient functions to manage and control space data and deal with graphic information (Study of Chinese railway network, 1999).
Exhibit 1 shows the estimated by Morgan Stanley traffic grows in the China and its regions by percentage. It if cler that the biggest growth is estimated in the West China, second place is occupied by Central and South China.
Exhibit 1
SCC’s Traffic Frowth Outlook in 2011 – 2020 estimated by Morgan Stanley (China High-Speed Rail, 2011)
Global competitiveness of Chinese rail transport
Realizing the specificity of rail transport and its role in the Chinese economy the competitiveness of transport should be seen as the ability to transport services to comply with the established requirements of the market during the reporting interval of time. Therefore it is necessary to identify the main criteria to evaluate the level of competitiveness of rail transport in China.
Still some experts believe that Chinese railway does not differ that much from the European rail transport. Nevertheless, “ Rongfang Liu, a rail expert at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark says that What is notable, she and others say, is that unlike many high-speed lines that repurpose older tracks, this one was designed from the ground up for very high-speed operation over hundreds of kilometers” (MIT Technology Review, 2010).
Expansion of the network. China's economic growth in the past two decades was accompanied by both a spatial extension and seal "economic fabric". This process of transformation of the territorial structure of the economy of China is particularly evident in the growth of the rail network, which had the highest rates in the world in the period 1988-2002. If these rates continued over the next decade of 2002 - 2014 the railway network of China would overtook Russia (140,000 km) by its lengths and would been the second of its size in the world after the United States (280,000 km). Thus, Chinese government has set a goal that by 2020 the length of Chinese railways is to be 100 thousand km.
Increasing speed of trains. The issue of increasing speed on Chinese railways occupies a central place in the development program of China's railway network. Each year China conducts various programs to improve the speed of trains. High roads in China include upgraded conventional railway lines, new lines built specially for high-speed trains as well as the world's first commercial line for trains.
The works on improving the speed of passenger trains were concentrated in the regions of the largest cities in China - Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. It was done barbecue of the multiple failures to provide passengers with the opportunity to travel back and forth over a distance of up to 500 km from these towns during one day. The process of increasing the speed of trains is done stage by stage. With the support of the state and through special incentive measures it is expected that the total length of high-speed rail network will reach 13,000 km by 2015 and 16,000 km by 2020.
Now China has built 6,552 km of high-speed railways. By 2015, they will stretch 13 000 km .: 8 000 km of tracks speed trains will be at 350 km / h and 5 000 km - 250 km per hour. (Figure 5). Then will be opened to traffic the Beijing-Shanghai, Harbin - Dalian, Beijing-Shijiazhuang, Shijiazhuang - Wuhan, Guangzhou - Shenzhen and Shanghai - Hangzhou, Nanjing - Hangzhou, Hangzhou - Ningbo, Tianjin - Qinhuangdao, Bengbu - Hefei, Shenzhen Syamen-, Hankou - Yichang, Nanjing - Anqing and other high-speed railways.
Increasing rate led to an increase in the carrying capacity of passenger and freight traffic by 18 and 12% respectively. Last acceleration seems to be particularly important event for China Railway and creates conditions for further work to increase the proportion of passenger trains running at a maximum speed of 300 and in the future - 350 km / h. In the process of modernization of the new highways several key areas of solving technical problems were identified:
development of the theory of interaction in the "wheel - rail";
development of high-speed rolling stock;
improvement of the alarm system.
Modernization of transport infrastructure. As a result of the implementation of programs to improve the speed it was necessary to create new rolling stock designed for high speeds on existing infrastructure, which is scheduled to upgrade the limited quantities.
The main areas of infrastructure modernization of existing lines include:
application of turnouts mark 12 of the rail 60 weight kg / m;
the use of computerized calculation of longitudinal forces in the rails;
the use of concrete sleepers with high load-bearing capacity and with less impact on the ballast;
application of mathematical modeling to calculate the carrying capacity of the bridges;
theoretical research and improvement of the geometric parameters of the contact system and the use of new materials and structures.
Reconstruction of infrastructure lines under the program contributes to improvement of the speed and freight traffic, contributing to the increase in a number of ways to weight train 5,500 tons and the emergence of trains with containers loaded in two tiers. This high-speed passenger trains with a maximum speed of 200 - 250 km / h and heavy container and freight trains at a speed of 80 - 120 km / h will have the same path with a minimum interval of 5 minutes in compliance with the requirements of traffic safety.
The efficiency and quality of services continues to improve the railway industry to use the potential of increasing the volume and improving the organization of transport and increasing network capacity through new lines, taking advantage of the main railways after electrification and rationally regulated train paths. All this had a significant impact on the improvement of transport services and the economy of the country.
Traffic safety. Due to the fact that the railways in China are characterized by territorial dispersion and difficult geographical and natural conditions they need a systematic mechanism for collecting and accounting information, providing safe movement of trains in all areas. Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of the monitoring system were designed the floor system (measurement of shear forces in the interaction of wheel and rail when the train passes); system using the technology of inertial guidance and laser measurements; system based on the car - a measure of rigidity path to the bridges and in the transition.
As a result a great amount of safety measures within the risk management are implemented by means of high speed in difficult operating conditions. Within 6 years after the start of the program to improve the speed of trains there has never been a single incident that could determine the speed factor.
The four key restraining forces against the development of CRT in the future include: :
Fierce competition from other modes of transportation
A lagging financing strategy
Low profit rate
Military management and low productivity (Chinese Railway Transportation: Opportunity and Challenge, 2007).
Governmental regulation
The development of the railway industry. In respect of rolling stock should be noted that with the production lines of domestic enterprises have gone and successfully tested the first 25 trains of various modifications, reach speeds of 200 km / h or more, ie in full compliance with the operating conditions on reconstruction of existing and newly constructed on the lines designed for high-speed and high-speed passenger trains.
As a result of the launch of the competition mechanism enterprises found themselves in the changing market environment and were forced to fight for the receipt of orders actively involved in the development and implementation of technical innovations and production of new products. This helped to improve product quality and minimize its cost, also strengthen the links between the railways, customers and manufacturers resulting in accelerated commissioning of new rolling stock series.
The role of foreign investments and foreign technology
Developing investment programs. Despite the progress in modernizing railways China continues to experience a lack of tools and technologies to accomplish the plans for the development of the network, increase operational efficiency, speed and carrying capacity. By using a variety of modern technologies and materials, high-tech construction of railways gradually meet world railway standards . This suggests that, despite the extent of China's rail lines, the Chinese government is trying to improve the quality of the construction of railways and to apply modern methods of construction.
Therefore it is believed that Chinese rail transport industry is highly dependant on the foreign capital. “ But China has advantages in this game: enormous economies of scale, the absence of a political cycle to disrupt long-term planning, state-owned rail builders with deep pockets, and not least control of the media” (BBC News, 2014).
China has signed the first contract to build a high-speed railway outside the country. The company named China Railway Construction Corporation built first high-speed rail branch in Mexico. Such contracts are not just business for China but a part of the global plan of entering new markets.It is expected that the daily use of highway will be about 23 thousand passengers.
The construction of high-speed rail is the first stage of an ambitious plan to modernize the Mexican authorities throughout the transport infrastructure of the country. It was decided to give priority to the railways because intercity passenger services have significantly declined after privatization in the 1990s.
The route Mexico - Karetaro will be the first high-speed backbone built by Chinese companies abroad. According to experts, this indicates that the high quality of high-speed railways in China is recognized outside the country.
Introduction of information technologies. Significant progress in China takes place in the field of new rail technology Railways of China tend to follow the principles of self-sufficiency through the introduction of original developments, including the complex, as well as by adapting advanced foreign technologies. Improved technologies and technical means yielding tangible results and effectively promotes the technical level of the whole railway industry. The main directions of development of information technology on the railways of China can be considered: the creation of e-commerce; the transition to a paperless office; scientific approach to the treatment of information and strategic planning; creation of a system of modern communication channels; train safety.
“The main technical imports from abroad include carriages, ignalling/transport management and ballast-less tracks. For carriage technology, China introduced models based on the Swedish high-speed commuter train, Regina (built by Bombardier of Canada), the JR East Hayate E2- 1000 (built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries) and the German ICE3 (built by Siemens)” (Development of the High-Speed Railways in China, 2011).
Conclusion
“As the country’s economy and population continue to expand, the need to spread economic development is an important goal that is best achieved if a proper and speedy rail network is in place” (China's Rail Revolution, 2010).
Development and financing of transportation in China is granted special attention as the government rightly believes the developed transport infrastructure to be the key to sustainable economic growth across the country.Nowadays China is facing consistent global updates of the transport network including the field of railway transport, reconstructing the ports, building the world's largest bridges, running the most high-speed trains, building a network of the most high-speed rail lines.
Introduction of information technologies in the management of all key areas of activity is an effective means of improving the country's rail transport. Due to the fact that the railway network is huge in size and complex in structure, it complicates the development of new information technologies, so it is very important to take the best strategic direction.
Bibliography
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