Cordel inks new contracts in Mexico and Australia

(Sharecast News) - Transport artificial intelligence (AI) specialist Cordel Group announced two significant contracts on Friday, expanding its global footprint. The AIM-traded firm said that in partnership with Holland LP, it had solidified its presence in Mexico with a LiDAR-based solution, building on the collaboration announced on 23 February.

Under the new commercial model, Cordel's LiDAR technology would be integrated into Holland's inspection vehicles, departing from previous setups.

The board said the LiDAR scanner would operate autonomously during routine railroad inspections, producing a digital twin of the network and providing essential engineering reports.

At the same time, Cordel Group said it had inked a contract worth AUD 0.5m with the National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO) in Australia.

The project, focussed on level crossing safety research, was an extension of the agreement announced on 4 September.

Cordel said it would play a pivotal role in data capture at scale and automated extraction of critical attributes from level crossings using multi-modal datasets.

The initiative was part of the Regional Australia Level Crossing Safety Programme - a government-backed AUD 180.1m endeavour to enhance level crossing safety in regional areas.

As part of its responsibilities, Cordel said it would create a web-based level-crossing data management portal, ensuring essential information would be readily accessible to stakeholders.

Ricardo would actively engage with compliance-related stakeholders, while NTRO would align the effort with its broader research agenda.

The board said the collaboration would contribute valuable insights and support potential funding rounds currently being discussed by NTRO and the Victoria State Department of Transport for 2024-2025 and beyond.

"We are delighted to be delivering on our partnership strategy with these two significant wins, both of which reflect the rail industry's acceptance of our unique automated capture and analysis technology," said chief executive officer John Davis.

At 0950 BST, shares in Cordel Group were down 1.52% at 3.89p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.