Hitachi adds to overseas order book
Jan 2011
Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk
- Japan's Hitachi Zosen Corp has expanded on a positive fiscal 2010 with confirmation of seven new TBM orders for international customers. Valued at about ¥4.5 billion (US$54 million), the seven new orders for four machines to Singapore and one each to Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan make a total of 11 machines for overseas delivery when combined with 2010 orders for two machines to India and two to the United States.
- The machine to Hong Kong is a 9.22m diameter EPBM that will work on the US$8.3 billion Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL). Ordered by the Maeda-China State Construction JV, the machine will excavate the parallel Tai Kong Po to Tse Uk Tsuen running tunnels for Contract C823A. Located at the centre of the 26km long underground route beneath Hong Kong, the work comprises four drives either side of the Shek Kong Emergency Rescue Sidings structure; two of 1.2km and two of 800m (Fig 1).
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Fig 1. Hong Kong's 26km long underground XRL route
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Fig 2. Singapore's Downtown Line network
- To Singapore four Hitachi EPBMs of 6.63m diameter will be delivered to STEC (Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co) for its Contract 920 on the city's 16.6km long Downtown Metro Line Stage 2 (DTL2). The Sing$356 million (US$278million) contract with the Land Transport Authority comprises the interchange Newton Station with the North-South Line and the running tunnels either side (Fig 2).
- A sixth new order is for a 7.69m diameter EPBM for the Seoul Subway in South Korea for Korean contractor Samsung C&T Corporation. The project is for the Seoul Subway 919 Zone Project for the Seoul Transportation Bureau Metro Division.
- For Taiwan, a 6.7m diameter Hitachi EPBM will be delivered to the Chung-lu/Kajima JV for excavation of a segmentally lined tunnel for the Taiwan Power, Hsinchu Electric Power Project.
- These seven new TBM confirmations come hard on the heels of orders secured by Hitachi Zosen last year for India and the USA.
- Two Hitachi slurry machines are off to Bangalore for excavation of running tunnels on the city's first underground metro line by Taiwanese contractor Continental Engineering Co JV. The two 6.44m diameter slurry TBMs are needed to work through weathered rock and residual soils under a high watertable.
- In the USA Hitachi Zosen machines have been ordered by the Michels/Jay Dee/Coluccio JV for the 8km long, 4.56m o.d. water supply tunnel under San Francisco Bay in California, and by the same group partners, Jay Dee/Coluccio/Michels, for the 6.44m o.d. Contract U230 twin running tunnels on the U-Link metro extension for Seattle in Washington State.
- Hitachi confirmed that all the machines will be built in Japan and shipped to their destinations. The larger 9.22m diameter machine for Hong Kong will be built at the company's Ariake works near Kumamoto on the south island Kyushu and the other 10 at the Sakai works near Osaka on the main island Honshu. "The Sakai works is the mother factory of TBMs and the Ariake works is mother factory of marine diesel engines, process equipment and nuclear equipment. The Sakai factory is able to manufacture big sized TBMs under its roof. For example the largest EPBM to work in Japan to date, 13.6m diameter EPBM for the Central Circular Shinagawa Ohi highway tunnel for the Obayashi-Seibu-Keikyu JV, was manufactured in the Sakai works. We installed a new production line for TBMs in the Ariake works to meet the growing demand for TBMs all over the world," said Hitachi representative Risa Hirano.
- Hitachi Zosen is reportedly expecting TBM orders to top ¥10 billion, more than US$120 million, in the current fiscal year with 60% of that coming from overseas sales.
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Underground advance for Bangalore Metro - TunnelTalk, July 2010
Hitachi EPBM for San Francisco Bay tunnel - TunnelTalk, Sept 2010
Mobilization of Seattle's U-Link extension - TunnelTalk, July 2010
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