Friday 6 April 2012

Construction Sector - CSR ZELC nicks RM530mil LRT train contract OVERWEIGHT


- Business Times  reports today that the federal government has awarded contracts worth up to RM530mil to China’s CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Ltd (CSR ZELC). 

- The contract is to supply 20 sets of six-car light  rail vehicles for the Ampang LRT line extension project. The trains would be deployed to serve both the existing Ampang line as well as the extension to Putra Heights.

- The tenders for this job – which closed on 12 December 2011 – attracted six bidders. We gather that the other bidders included Bombardier Transportation/Scomi Rail Bhd, Caf Spain/Tranz-i Sdn Bhd, China North Railway/EmRail Sdn Bhd, Rotem Korea/CMC Engineering Sdn Bhd and Romania Astra/SmH Rail Sdn Bhd.  

- The  Business Times report added that CSR ZELC emerged with the lowest bid within a bidding range of RM500mil to RM850mil.  CSR ZELC is one of the major electric locomotive manufacturers in China. It is a unit of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp Ltd.

- The award of the train contract to CSR ZELC precedes an earlier RM1.9bil that the group received from national railway company Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) that involves the supply of 38 sets of six-car trains.  

- This comes on the back of reports indicating that CSR ZELC plans to set up a manufacturing plant in Batu Gajah, Perak. By our reckoning, this could serve as part of CSR ZELC’s larger plans to use Malaysia as a hub to expand into the ASEAN market.

- With this award, we estimate that the balance of works yet to be awarded for the Ampang Line extension – part of the Klang Valley LRT Extension programme – is around RM2bil. What remains is the construction of Station 12, supply of management cards as well as EPC works for the line.

- With most of the major contracts for the LRT extension works already awarded, the focus would likely shift to the RM20bil Sg.Buloh-Kajang MRT line. Thus far, ~RM2bil worth of contracts have been awarded to IJM, Ahmad Zaki and KimLun Corp. 

- From our ground checks, three more major contracts  could be announced this month – followed by another two in May. These would include part of the six remaining elevated viaduct jobs worth ~RM1bil each. 

- For the remaining elevated six packages, we expect  IJM to once again be in the mix of things together with Sunway and MRCB – with Naim Holdings and TRC for the bumi category. For the station and sub-structure works,  we expect WCT and Pintaras Jaya to put up a strong challenge.

- Similarly, we expect the imminent roll-out of LRT/MRT packages to prod renewed focus on building material players:- Lafarge Malayan Cement  (cement), Ann Joo Resources (steel), Lion Industries (steel), KimLun (tunnel lining) and MTD ACPI (tunnelling lining).

Source: AmeSecurities 

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