Our Businesses
There are three business segments of the Company: Industrial Automation, Rail Transportation and Mechanical and Electrical Solution.
Industrial Automation:
We are able to deliver the full spectrum of automation hardware, software, and services spanning field devices, control systems, enterprise manufacturing management and cloud-based applications. Historically, we focused our efforts on the area of DCS (Distributed Control System), which is a network of controllers, sensors, actuators and other devices that can be programmed to control outputs based on input conditions through logic calculations. In an automated production line, sensors or so-called “instrumentations” are distributed across the production facility to monitor sub-systems like the robots, CNC machines, and logistic tools. These sensors are like human eyes, which monitor the process, and detect any abnormal situations. The information collected from those sensors is then transmitted to the DCS for centralized data processing through communication networks. The central computer (brain) processes information and generates commands, based on sophisticated algorithmic and pre-set parameters. These commands are then sent to actuators (muscles/bones) through communication devices to execute the orders and maintain production flow. We are as well a player in the PLC market, where the products are mainly used in discrete control and applied to a wide array of industries. PLCs are usually integrated together into machines to provide control at machinery level.
Our comprehensive suite of automation solution consists of third-party hardware-centric products such as instrumentation and actuators, our proprietary software-centric DCS/SIS (Safety Instrumentation System)/PLC, and valued-added software packages such as RMIS (Real-time Management Information System), HAMS (HolliAS Asset Management System), OTS (Operator Training System), HolliAS BATCH (Batch Application Package), and HolliAS APC Suite (Advanced Process Control Package), etc. Our solution has been widely used in process industries involving continuous flow of material handling, such as power generation and petro-chemical, while we have also served clients from metallurgy, building materials, pharmaceutical and food & beverage, etc. Our client base includes large state-owned enterprises, multi-national companies, and other domestic companies. Some of our renowned customers include the five major Chinese power generation companies, the three major Chinese petroleum companies, and international companies such as BASF, etc. We have also obtained customers from India and Southeast Asia within similar industries.
Meanwhile, the development of equipment and process level automation in China has gradually increased production digitalization, which has created opportunities for the development of digital factory. Compared with equipment and process automation, digital factory bring production and management into greater coordination. The realization of such requires the integration and processing of data of different verticals covering equipment, production line, workshop and corporate administration level. We have put forth our digital factory initiative in the year 2018 and have successfully signed several breakthrough contracts with our existing customers from power and chemical industry.
We also command a position in Chinese nuclear power automation and control market as one of the qualified local automation and control product provider to the non-safety control for both nuclear island and conventional island of nuclear power reactors in nuclear power stations. We provide our HOLLiAS MACS-N DCS product to China’s nuclear power industry. The know-how was accumulated from our industrial DCS applications in high-end, conventional energy power plants, with much more sophisticated software and hardware specifications, and more stringent production and quality assurance process. In a nuclear power station, the nuclear island operates to transform nuclear energy to heat energy, and pass on the steam generated by the steam generator to the conventional island, where steam drives the turbine to generate the electricity, and pass on to the transformer for loading onto the grid.
Rail Transportation:
We have branched out from the industrial automation domain into the subway and high-speed rail businesses, leveraging on our core competency and strong research and development capabilities, and have already established a key position in the high-speed rail signaling market and subway SCADA market.
In high speed rail business, our core proprietary product lines includes TCC (Train Control Center) and ATP (Automation Train Protection). An ATP essentially acts as the train over-speed protection mechanism. It collects real-time information like speed limit ahead, train operation status, line data, instructions from train control center, and then combines that information with the train parameters to produce train protection curves. In case of any human errors, like driver’s negligence at the red light, it applies emergency brakes automatically. TCCs is an on-ground control center at railway stations or equipment stations which monitor route condition, track status, train schedules, distance between trains, and the working status of other essential function devices, and then through logic calculation, generate control instructions and commands. The command information from the TCC is then transmitted to the ATP located on the locomotives/trains, through track circuits and electronic beacons located at various points along the railway line, or wirelessly.
Besides ATP and TCC, we also provide other signaling products in high speed rail market, such as ATO (Automatic Train Operation system), Track Circuit, LEU (Line-Side Electronic Unit), BTM (Balise Transmission Module), TSRS (Temporary Speed Restriction Server), RBC (Radio Block Center) and CBI (Computer Based Interlocking), etc. China Railway Corporation employs its own administrative admission system and set specific standards for the high-speed rail signaling products deployed in China’s high-speed rail lines. In addition to having our products certified under those domestic standards, we have redesigned the whole set of our high-speed rail signaling systems to better compete in the rail market outside of China. Most of our high-speed rail signaling products have passed European Safety Standards SIL 4 certification. For high-speed rail business, CRC and local provincial rail bureaus are our major customers. We are also the supplier of the entire high-speed rail signaling system to Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail line for the Hong Kong MTR, which marked our breakthrough into the international high-speed rail signaling market.
In subway business, our core product is SCADA system. It is an open software platform to enable integrated and unified monitoring of all necessary sub-systems of the subway, including the Power Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System, Building Automatic System, Fire Alarm System, Platform Screen Door System, Access Control System, Closed Circuit Television, Passenger Information System, Passenger Train Information System, and Alarm System. Our performance records cover numerous cities in China, include Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Dalian, Wuhan, Chengdu, Lanzhou and Hohhot, etc. Our international performance records include Thomson & Eastern Region Lines in Singapore and Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail line. Based on our strong research and development capability and technical know-how of signaling application accumulated from high-speed rail, we have also developed our proprietary subway signaling system certified under European safety standards. The current subway signaling market is predominantly occupied by multi-national corporations, such as Siemens, Alstom and Thales.
Mechanical and Electrical Solution:
We established a stronger foot-hold in Southeast Asia through the acquisitions of Concord and Bond Groups in 2011 and 2013 respectively. Concord and Bond Groups mainly provide mechanical and electrical solutions, including design, engineering, procurement, project management, construction and commissioning, and maintenance related services. Concord Group mainly focuses on railway transportation in Singapore, Macau, Qatar, UAE and Saudi Kingdom markets, and Bond Group mainly focuses on factories, data centers, banks, hospitals, airports, power stations, gas and instrumentation plants, hotels, commercial centers, residential buildings and infrastructure works in Malaysia. Through the acquisitions, the Company seeks to expand the existing distributions and marketing channels to sell the Company’s existing product lines to the fast growing Southeast Asia and the Middle East markets.
During the past several years we have achieved a number of significant contract wins in international arena, including (i) contracts with MTR Corporation of Hong Kong SAR to provide a complete suite of high-speed rail signaling systems to Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Hong Kong Section; (ii) a contract with SMRT Trains Ltd. in Singapore to provide design, electrification and installation for station renovations on North-South and East-West lines and a contract with Thales Solutions Asia Pte. Ltd. to provide design, installation, testing and commission for replacing the existing signaling systems for the North-South and East-West lines and install new signaling systems for the Tuas West Extension line in Singapore; (iii) a contract with Land Transport Authority in Singapore to provide the Integrated Supervisory Control System for the Thomson & Eastern Region Lines in Singapore; (iv) a contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to provide electrical installation services for part of the Power Distribution System Package of the first Phase of Doha Metro; (vi) maintenance contracts with MTR Corporation of Hong Kong SAR spanning multiple years.