Hyundai Rotem wins express train supply deal from Uzbekistan

Hyundai Rotem Co., a South Korean rolling stock and defense equipment maker, has secured a 270 billion won ($196 million) order from Uzbekistan to supply high-speed trains, marking the country’s first export of express trains, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Friday.

The 42 train units to be supplied will run on 1,216-kilometer railways in Uzbekistan, including the 590km track between the country’s capital of Tashkent and Bukhara, at a speed of 250km per hour.

They are scheduled to commence operations in April 2027.

Separate from the supply agreement, the two countries inked a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in operating the high-speed rail system and providing maintenance and repair services, as well as building train depots.

The deals came two decades after South Korea launched the Korea Train eXpress (KTX) high-speed train service and are expected to pave the way for its foray into the global high-speed train market, forecast to grow to about 10 trillion won, according to SCI Verkehr's Worldwide Market for Rail Industries study in 2022.

They were announced in a joint press release following a summit meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent.

The trains will have electric multiple units, an upgraded model where each unit self-supplies electricity. That compares with the trains currently operating in Uzbekistan, which source electricity only from the first and last units of a train.

In 1994, South Korea signed an express train purchase and relevant technology transfer deal with France’s rolling stock company Alstom.

In 2008, Hyundai Rotem rolled out its first high-speed train, mostly with its own technology. In 2010, it launched the service, catapulting South Korea to the fourth position in the world for express train commercialization.

Hyundai Rotem sets its sights on Morocco and Poland, which are expected to place high-speed train orders in 2025 and 2026, respectively. Hyundai Rotem also targets Saudi Arabia as its new export market.

A handful of companies, such as Alstom, Germany’s Siemens and Japan’s Hitachi dominate the world's high-speed train manufacturing market.

Write to Byung-Uk Do at dodo@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.