South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem Co., locomotive and rolling stock unit of Hyundai Motor Group, secured 268.8 billion won ($222.6 million) order from state-owned Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail) to build high-speed electric multiple unit (HEMU) trains, the company said on Friday.

Under the agreement, Hyundai Rotem will deliver a total of 84 carriages of a high-speed train with a maximum speed of 260 kilometers by December 2020. The order comes a week after the company won a 59 billion won order to build two sets of eight carriages for HEMU train with a maximum speed of 320 kilometers.

The latest HEMU train order is comprised of three sets of carriages. The first batch with 48 carriages will be running on the route connecting Cheongnyangni Station, western Seoul and the country’s southern port city Busan while the second set with 24 carriages will be built to run on the track connecting Songsan Station in Uijeongbu, a town north of Seoul with Iksan Station located in the southwestern region of the country. The third tranche with 12 carriages will serve the route connecting Icheon Station, south of Seoul, and Mungyeong Station in central Korea.

The company this year has secured orders for 130 carriages of HEMU trains, raising prospects for Korea’s home-grown high-speed trains. The HEMU trains with electric traction on each carriage have emerged as a popular suburban commuting rail network due to their fast speed and pollution-free operation. The Korean company which entirely ran high-speed locomotives with electric traction located at each end upon importing French-made TGV technology has been trying to build credential in the EMU segment as it makes up 75 percent of lately made high-speed trains.

Hyundai Rotem won a contract to supply electric trains to Malaysia in May and plans to expand foreign customers upon building more experience at home.

By Woo Je-yoon

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