Railway Gazette International, 3/28/24
CRRC drops Bulgarian train bid following EU investigation
BULGARIA: CRRC Qingdao Sifang Locomotive has withdrawn its bid for a contract to supply 20 push-pull trainsets, after the European Commission launched an investigation into whether the Chinese state-owned company might have benefited from an unfair subsidy.
The tender from the Ministry of Transport & Communications to supply 20 electric push-pull trains and maintain them for 15 years had an estimated value of around 1·2bn leva. In December Talgo submitted a bid of 1·22bn leva, while the bid from CRRC Qingdao Sifang Locomotive was much lower at just 607m leva.