Government Actively Supports Acquisition of International Certifications for Overseas Expansion of Railway Vehicles

Rail vehicle body of SJ Steel (Provided by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 7th that it has finalized the selection of 14 projects for the '2020 Support for Acquisition of International Certification for Railway Products' through two rounds of calls for support companies this year to promote the overseas expansion of domestic railway technology.

Although domestic railway companies possess excellent technological capabilities, they have faced difficulties in entering overseas markets due to the high costs and time required to obtain international certifications demanded by foreign railway markets. Based on existing cases, acquiring international certifications such as SIL (Safety Integrity Level), TSI (Technical Specifications for Interoperability in Europe), and IRIS (International Railway Industry Standard) required by overseas railway markets takes an average of about 400 million KRW and 31 months.

Accordingly, since 2018, the Ministry has been supporting the costs required for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies to obtain international certifications through the railway product international certification acquisition support project, and has been conducting international certification capacity-building training for railway industry workers. SMEs can receive support up to 100 million KRW, covering up to 60% of the required costs. Mid-sized companies can receive up to 80 million KRW, covering up to 40% of the required costs.

The Ministry supported the acquisition of 13 international certifications in total, including 4 cases in 2018 and 9 cases last year, and a total of 176 people completed related training, including 52 in 2018 and 124 last year, applying it to their work.

In particular, this year, the total project scale was increased to 1 billion KRW, doubling the previous budget of 500 million KRW, and the scope of support was expanded by revising the operational guidelines to include railway vehicles such as passenger cars and electric trains, in addition to the existing 'railway products.'

Rail Vehicle Front-End Passenger Emergency Escape Device by Geukdong Jeonggong (Provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

Accordingly, a total of 14 projects were selected for support, including railway vehicles from Dawonsys, obstacle detection devices for railway vehicles from Hyunwoo System, and train obstacle and derailment detection devices from Shalom Engineering, covering the vehicle sector.

Notably, the selection includes railway products that must obtain international certification before delivery after signing overseas supply contracts, such as the body of the Polish tram delivery vehicle from SJ Steel and the wheels of the double-decker passenger car delivery vehicle for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in the United States from Eastern RAE.

Despite possessing world-class technological competitiveness, domestic railway technologies such as platform safety steps (Herostech) and passenger emergency evacuation devices at the front end of railway vehicles (Geukdong Precision) have faced difficulties in overseas expansion due to international certification entry barriers, but many have been selected this time, enabling faster entry into overseas markets.

Kim Heon-jung, Director of the Railway Policy Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "Although domestic railway technology is rapidly growing, the lack of international certification limits its presence in overseas markets. We plan to continuously expand government support to remove overseas entry barriers by gathering industry opinions so that the railway product international certification support project can be a timely relief for the domestic railway industry facing difficulties in overseas expansion."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.