The third country in Europe to use Chinese loco, Republic of North Macedinia’s first locomotive has departed from Turkey.

First of 4-locomotives-order of Macedonian Railways produced by
Chinese loco manufacturer CRRC is on way. The loco was transported to Turkey by sea and is now moving on wheels to Macedonia.

The electric locomotive has a power of 5600 kw, operating speed of 120 km/h and able to haul 1600 tonnes of freight.

This is the second China-made electric locomotive designed according to new regulations in Europe. CRRC had delivered another order of electric locos meeting European spects to Serbia a couple of years ago. Belarus was the first country in Europe that China had sold locomotives.

The whole rail industry market has reached € 100 bn. European manufacturers dominate the market. The turnover of the European companies is about € 50 bn.

On the other hand, the share of American and Asian manufacturers in European market is very low, about 16%. Thus, the Chinese locomotive orders in European region highly matters both for China and EU.

CRRC has 53 locomotive models and has a annual capacity of 1000 locomotives. The order is worth € 8 mn, which is about half of European manufacturer’s prices.

Cover photo: EA Rail ©