Photo: Screenshot of website of the General Administration of Customs

A set of China-produced subway trains were shipped to Portugal through North China's Tianjin port, the nation's first urban railway trains exported to the EU, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) of China announced on Monday.

The project of 18 trains includes 72 train sections produced by the CRRC Tangshan Co. Each train can hold up to 346 passengers and weighs 28.4 tons, with a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour. The trains feature low energy cost, low noise and intelligent functioning. 

The contract was signed in January 2020 between the CRRC Tangshan Co and the Portuguese state-owned enterprises Metro do Porto. Production started in November 2021 and the work was finished in about eight months, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

The overall contract value reached 49.57 million euros ($48.73 million) and included a provision for five years of maintenance, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.  

According to railway information site Railway-technology.com, Metro do Porto is operating a network of six subway lines and 82 stations in Porto, the second-largest city of Portugal, serving more than 71 million commuters in 2019. 

In order to meet the increasing commute demands of local residents, Metro do Porto is expanding the traffic network. The overall metro expansion project will add seven stations and more than six kilometers of railways to the network, according to the website, and the new subway trains will be deployed in all lines of the local rail network.

Data from the GAC showed on Monday that trade between China and the EU reached $645.95 billion in the first three quarters of 2022. Bilateral trade between China and Portugal came in at $7 billion during the period, rising by 9.8 percent year-on-year.

Global Times