What Hitachi has promised the trade unions
During a meeting with trade unions, Hitachi Rail announced that it would focus on sustainable rail mobility (hybrid and hydrogen) and digitalisation (to bridge the delays). All the details
During a meeting yesterday in Rome with the secretariats of the FIM, FIOM and UILM trade unions, the Japanese railway construction company Hitachi Rail announced its intention to focus more on low-emission mobility and digitization.
Not counting Chinese companies, Hitachi Rail is the fourth largest player in the world in the rail mobility market.
THE DOUBLE STRATEGY OF HITACHI
In his speech, as revealed by a Fim-Cisl disclosure, the managing director Andrew Barr stated that Hitachi's strategy "is to pursue the digitization of all our core offer, which, also through the Lumada data system , will have to grow over the next few years ". The company is also proceeding with the acquisition of other companies "to better develop our business by focusing on hybrid mobility".
"Environmental sustainability," said Barr, "is now at the heart of all our projects." Hitachi Rail's CEO mentioned collaboration with vehicle manufacturer Toyota in Japan to develop a hydrogen train.
THE VALUE OF THE ITALIAN MARKET
Barr thinks that the US market, being "in full recovery", should become "one of the main markets to look to" with a view to achieving the 6 percent profitability target by the end of 2021. Last year profitability had been 3 per cent; by 2025 it will have to reach 10 per cent, also through a recovery of efficiency in the factories.
However, even in Italy – where Hitachi Rail employs about 12 thousand employees – "there is room for growth, especially at the end of the pandemic and in function of the green drive", says the manager.
WHAT HITACHI WILL DO ON THE HYBRID
Christian Andi, head of the EMEA area of Hitachi Rail, announced that the company must focus on sustainable mobility, on the hybrid , “in particular on trams and trains”.
On this point, the AT300 hybrid (diesel-electric) train was mentioned in yesterday's meeting: it is a high-speed intercity train, designed to cover long distances.
THE DELAYS OF HITACHI ON DIGITIZATION
Giuseppe Gaudiello, COO Signaling & Turnkey of Hitachi Rail, recalled instead the digital delay of Hitachi Rail: “we have great railway skills”, he said, “but we have digital skills similar to those entering the market for the first time”. He explained that this gap is resolved with the acquisition of skills from outside, but the resources must give "availability to international mobility".
“The future of the railways will be increasingly oriented towards autonomous train driving,” says Gaudiello. "5G, cloud and sensors are the tools that we will have to develop and manage in the coming years to win the challenge".
THE REQUESTS OF THE FIM-CISL ON HYDROGEN
In a statement, the FIM-CISL makes it known that it has "asked for clarification" to Hitachi "about the willingness or not to strengthen investments in research and development in the direction of the production of hydrogen trains, given the government's willingness to direct towards that mobility and decarbonisation as an energy source ”.
HYDROGEN TRAINS IN ITALY
From 2023 the first hydrogen trains will arrive in Italy, writes the Corriere della Sera .
Last April, in a hearing in the Chamber, the representatives of the railway manufacturer Alstom said they had a "strong focus" on Milan-Cortina 2026: "the goal would be to get to the 2026 Olympic Games by transporting visitors with hydrogen trains and not with diesel trains ". The first Italian hydrogen railway project is on the Brescia Iseo Edolo line. The company also said it was working on projects on Venice Airport, Valsugana, Sicily, Sardinia, Puglia (the Lecce-Gallipoli section), Tuscany (Florence-Ravenna).
THE COMMENT OF D'ALÒ (FIM-CISL)
Valerio D'Alò, FIM-CISL national secretary, declared that Hitachi Rail represents "a wealth for our country in terms of employment and technology". And he thinks that the company's "skills and industrial assets" can "play a driving role in the growth of the Italian GDP, particularly in the South".
In the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, 31.4 billion euros are allocated to infrastructures for sustainable mobility, for the modernization and enhancement of high-speed and regional rail transport, reads the FIM-CISL press release.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/hitachi-sindacati/ on Thu, 08 Jul 2021 10:54:40 +0000.