Firm to take part in bidding for airport bridge contract

China International Marine Containers (Group) Ltd, the country's largest transportation equipment producer by revenue, will participate in the bidding for up to 700 aircraft passenger boarding bridges at Dubai's new Al Maktoum International Airport, an executive of the company said on Tuesday.

The comment came after its subsidiary - Shenzhen CIMC-TianDa Airport Support Co Ltd - made a breakthrough in gaining an order for 32 aircraft passenger boarding bridges from Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates on Monday. The deal took 18 months to complete and is worth 120 million yuan ($18 million).

CIMC-TianDa is a CIMC subsidiary specializing in manufacturing airport support and logistics equipment. Its products include passenger baggage handling systems, visual docking guidance systems, air cargo handling systems, auto-parking systems, catering trucks and airport apron buses.

Chang Shaomin, general manager of CIMC-TianDa, said even though the company has gained a total of 600 million yuan of orders for aircraft passenger boarding bridges from Bahrain and a number of cities in China in the first half of this year, the deal gained from Dubai International Airport can be a practical tool to seize more market share in the wealthy Middle East markets.

"Since Dubai has one of the world's busiest airports, such a move enabled CIMC to successfully march in the Middle East market," said Chang.

Dubai is planning to build the largest world airport Al Maktoum Airport, which will require about 700 bridges and will be capable of hosting 160 million passengers per year after 2025. The new airport will call for bids in 2016 for 350 bridges, the number equivalent to CIMC-TianDa's total sales from both global and home markets.

Chang said the company has already begun the preparation for participating the bidding next year and as many Middle East countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been spending impressively in building new international or regional air hubs and investing heavily in airlines including Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways.

CIMC-TianDa has built or will build 4,981 aircraft passenger boarding bridges for 243 airports in 63 countries and regions this year. More than half of its orders now are coming from overseas markets

"Gaining the order from Dubai International Airport will effectively expand CIMC's sales network in the Middle East region, as well as in the African markets. Its potential benefits could be even greater if its other aviation-related products can be sold there," said Zhao Ying, a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

Contact the writers at zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn and jingshuiyu@chinadaily.com.cn