Philippines orders 240 Japanese train cars for first Manila subway for $556 million USD

 

Sumitomo and JR East's $556m contract follows 2019 commuter rail deal

Philippines orders 240 Japanese train cars for first Manila subway

Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. and an East Japan Railway unit announced Monday that they won a 57.5 billion yen ($556 million) order for train cars that will serve Manila's first-ever subway system. 

President Rodrigo Duterte's Build Build Build program highlighted the Manila's first-ever subway public transport system which idea was rejected by all previous Philippine Presidents due to their belief that subway train system could not withstand in the Philippines due to flooding issues ignoring the suggested engineering intervention that could protect the project from floods. 

Sumitomo and JR East subsidiary Japan Transport Engineering signed the contract on Dec. 15, 2020 according to the news release. The order covers 240 subway cars, with the final delivery date set for March 2027.

The subway will span 36 km and 17 stations in the Greater Manila region. The line will connect Quezon City in the north to the city of Paranaque in the south.

The subway project is the centerpiece of the "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure initiative being led by President Rodrigo Duterte's government. The Japanese government is providing foreign development assistance for the undertaking.

The contract comes on the heels of last year's order for 104 cars that will run on a north-south commuter railway serving Manila. The line is expected to fully open in 2025.

Japan Transport Engineering is making both the subway and commuter cars, which will be similar. The company owns the largest share in Japan's commuter-rail-car market.

The cars run on Tokyo rail lines operated by parent company JR East, also known as East Japan Railway. The Manila subway line will be modeled after Tokyo's subway system. Read more at Asia Nikkei

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₱778 Billion Railway 95 KM Connecting Connecting Manila to Clark will open on 2022

 

Philippines awards final two contracts for Malolos – Clark line

PHILIPPINE National Railways (PNR) and the Philippines Department of Transportation (DOTr) have awarded the two remaining construction contracts for the 53km Malolos – Clark section of its North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project.

The contracts, designated packages 2 and 3, cover a total of 28 km of viaduct and six stations in the northern province of Pampanga, and have a combined value of ₱56.47 billion Php ($1.17 billion US Dollars ).

Package 2, worth ₱ 33.7 illion Php, was awarded to a joint venture of Acciona Construction Philippines and Daelim Industrial, and covers the construction of 16km of viaduct and stations in Minalin, Santo Tomas and San Fernando.

Package 3, worth ₱22.77 billion Php, was awarded to Italian-Thai Development, and covers the construction of 12km of viaduct and stations in San Fernando, Angeles and Mabalacat.

The contracts are the last two of five packages for the section. Package 1 was awarded to a Hyundai-led consortium on September 18, and Packages 4 and 5 were awarded on August 1. Package 4 was awarded to a partnership of EEI and Acciona, and 5 to Posco, Korea.

Construction on the Malolos – Clark line is scheduled to begin in November, with the section currently expected to begin partial operation in 2022. When completed, the new railway will connect Malolos, Bulacan, to Clark International Airport in Mabalacat, offering end-to-end journey times of 30-35 minutes, compared with journey of 1h 30min.

The section is part of the larger 148km NSCR project, which is expected to cost around ₱777.55 billion, and is co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica).

Philippines awards contract for Malolos – Clark project

$573 million US Dollars contract to construct a section of the Malolos – Clark Railway project was ararded to a Hyundai-led consortium.

The Package 1 contract, which was awarded on September 18, covers the construction of 17km of viaduct northwest of Manila, and two elevated stations in Calumpit and Apalit.  

The consortium, led by Hyundai Engineering and Construction, which holds a 57.5% controlling share, also comprises Dong-ah Geological Engineering, Korea, and Megawide Construction, Philippines.

The contract is part of the planned 53km Malolos – Clark Railway, which will connect Malolos, a city north of Manila, with Clark International Airport and economic zone.

Package 1 follows the awarding of contracts for Package 4 to a partnership of EEI and Acciona Construction Philippines, and Package 5 to Posco, Korea. The contracts cover the construction of 6.3km of main line and 1.6km of depot access line, as well as Clark airport station, a depot at Mabalacat, an operations control centre (OCC) and other buildings.

Contracts for two packages have yet to be awarded. These are:

* Package 2, which covers construction of 16km including San Fernando station, and

* Package 3, which covers 12km of line including Angeles station.

Malolos – Clark is the second of three phases in the country’s broader 148km North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project, which will run between New Clark City, Pampanga, and Calambra, Laguna and cost around ₱777.55 billion ($15.8 billion US Dollars) when completed.

The NSCR is currently scheduled for completion is 2025, and is intended to reduce congestion across the Manila metropolitan area.

The project is partially funded through financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica). Read more from Rail journal page 1 and two 

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European Investor to Pour €4 Billion Euros to Revive National Steel Corporation in Iligan City

Iligan City — A new, state-of-the-art fully integrated steel mill is poised to rise again in this once touted as the industrial city of the south.

Iligan City Mayor Celso Regencia has acknowledged last week the intent of a foreign-funded consortium in the amount of 4B euros for the rebirth of the new National Steel Corporation.

The development came as a big surprise after a series of failed investment proposals — mostly from Chinese groups — were presented before the pandemic to Mayor Regencia for the plan to rebuild the defunct NSC.

Mayor Regencia had expressed optimism the latest investment proposal would push through as it were considering the seriousness of the consortium to proceed amid the growing threat of Covid-19.

“We are bullish with the development to re-construct the mothballed NSC as this would place Iligan City once again in the country’s industrial map”, Regencia said.

The reconstruction phase is set to start late this year by a European supplier of equipment and physical plants to the metal industry.

National Steel Corporation (NSC) was the Asia's Largest Steel Factory before it was sold by former President Fidel V. Ramos to Malaysia and was become so controversial for the alleged Corruption but Ramos denied the accusation. 

Read related article: - Ramos Killed NSC Asia's Biggest Steel Factory in ILigan City to allow China Dominates the Philippines 

The 400-hectare property of the old NSC is now owned by the city government of Iligan after undergoing a series of legal battles with bank liquidators.

Settlement for the buy-out of the property is now in the last ditch of negotiations with the consortium group.

As a driver of economic growth, the new NSC is expected to generate thousands of jobs to the people of Iligan and the rest of the region.

The country has lost its presence in the steel industry sector after the old NSC had experienced a series of downfalls, latest of which was in the hands of Global Steel, a Malaysian manufacturing group.

With the revival of the old NSC into a modern steel making plant, the economy of Iligan City and the rest of Mindanao will definitely shoot up to an unprecented level of progress, Regencia added.

From Ruffy Magbanua of Mindanao Daily News

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