It was at the end of November, during a railway fair held in Madrid, when the Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente, suggested the possibility of buying trains manufactured in China to operate in Spain's high-speed services. An idea that angered a large part of the national industry, which does not understand why Puente has to look towards China when there are renowned manufacturers at home like Talgo or CAF. "For a country not to buy trains from its own country is a bit strange," said Mikel Jauregi, Basque Minister of Industry, Energy Transition, and Sustainability, at a public event a few days ago.
Puente landed in Shanghai on Wednesday on his first trip to the Asian country. His purpose is to explore, among other operations, the possible purchase of trains manufactured by the giant China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), the world's largest railway manufacturer.
It is expected that Renfe will launch two tenders at the beginning of 2026 to try to bring trains in the short and medium term that, on other occasions, reached a price per unit of over 27 million euros per unit. The option of China, according to sources familiar with the sector, could be much more economically affordable (up to 30% cheaper, they claim) and with a faster delivery than the timelines usually handled by European manufacturers.
Contracts of European countries with CRRC are now under scrutiny by Brussels. In November, the European Commission initiated an investigation into "possible market distortions" in the Lisbon metro tender, as it is suspected that a subsidiary of the Chinese manufacturer "benefited from significant foreign subsidies," referring to the aid from the Chinese government, allowing CRRC to "submit an excessively advantageous bid."
Talgo has protested on more than one occasion about public tenders, especially for the manufacturing and supply of trains for the Spanish railway network, which have favored European giants like Siemens or Alstom over the national industry. The possible move now towards Chinese trains would reaffirm their complaints that the government's policies are oriented towards foreign manufacturers, which could jeopardize the survival of the Spanish railway industry and its jobs.
The Chinese CRRC employs over 170,000 people and operates in more than a hundred countries worldwide. It is a key geopolitical tool for Beijing: it supports large infrastructure projects especially linked to the new Silk Road (formally known as the Belt and Road Initiative), which extends mainly through developing countries.
Puente will meet in Beijing on Friday with his Chinese counterpart, Liu Wei, and with the senior officials of CRRC. The history of this Chinese company is closely connected to the industrial and technological development of the country. After the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, the railway was considered a strategic sector. For decades, the State created factories and workshops to produce locomotives and wagons with Soviet technology first and, gradually, with its own development. These facilities would eventually be grouped into large state industrial conglomerates.
In the early 2000s, China reorganized its railway industry to promote internal competition: in the north, CNR (China Northern Railway) expanded and in the south, CSR (China South Railway). Both absorbed foreign technology for high-speed trains. In 2015, Xi Jinping's government decided to merge CNR and CSR to create a "national industrial super champion" in its expansion to other countries. Thus, CRRC was born, a company fully controlled by the State and listed on the stock exchange in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
CRRC is the manufacturer of the famous Fuxing, the modern trains that reach 350 kilometers per hour, a speed that Minister Puente now wants to bring to the Spanish railway network. These trains travel 48,000 kilometers in China connecting more than 550 cities throughout the country, surpassing the combined length of the high-speed network of Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
The Chinese manufacturer, along with the state operator China Railway, has introduced a new generation of bullet trains this year, the magnetic levitation ones, which exceed 600 km/h. These trains, known as maglev, do not run on railway tracks, but use electromagnets to suspend themselves above the rails and, as there is no friction from contact with the tracks, they operate silently. Additionally, the first hydrogen-powered tourist train, the Qingchun, developed in the subsidiary in the city of Changchun, was recently presented, where Minister Puente will conclude his visit to China on Saturday.
These types of trains operate using fuel cells that combine hydrogen stored on board with oxygen from the air to generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction that powers the engines. Hydrogen trains can operate on non-electrified lines without the need for overhead lines, offering a clean and flexible alternative to traditional diesel trains.
Before exploring the purchase of CRRC trains, the Spanish minister will be in the city of Hefei on Thursday, where Gotion's headquarters are located, a multinational specialized in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. Puente's visit hopes to be a boost for this company, which has the participation of the Volkswagen Group, to set up one of its factories in Valladolid with the purpose of supplying its batteries to the entire European market.