Japan, France and Canada are said to be the best manufacturers of trains in the world, but China is getting virtually all the order for trains in Africa.
As many African countries move to ease travelling by expanding or modernizing their rail transportation, so does the demand for made in China trains. The assembly line in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province continue to roll off trains for Africa.
China’s leading train manufacturer, the CRRC is expected to deliver 10 trains to Nigeria by October. They will travel at 150 kilometres per hour between Abuja and Kaduna, beating South Africa’s Gautrain which runs at approximately 100 km/h. The details of the deal has not been made public.
As the first modernised railway system in Nigeria, the Abuja – Kaduna railway began operating in July 2016 with the first batch of 5 trains from CRRC. Currently, the trains travel at 90 km/h and had transported 280,000 passengers by June. It facilitated the easy movement of people and connection to Abuja during the closure of the Abuja airport for the repair the runway, with all flights landing in Kaduna airport.
China has exported trains to six African countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Sudan, Tunisia and Guinea.
The sales volume of railway locomotive vehicles from China to Africa more than doubled in the first half of 2017 according to China News Service.
