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China invested $43.3bn in railway construction in H1 2015
July 24, 2015, 7:32 am

File photo: a high-speed railway constructed by China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) in Turkey [Xinhua]

File photo: a high-speed railway constructed by China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) in Turkey [Xinhua]

China has invested more than 265.1 billion yuan ($43.3 billion ) in domestic railway construction in the first half of the year, up 12.7 percent from one year earlier, China Railway Corporation has announced in Beijing.

In the first six months, an additional 2,226 km of new railway lines were put into service, the company said in a statement. Chinese policymakers have said some 8,000 kilometers (about 5,000 miles) of railway lines will be opened to domestic traffic this year.

China is investing more than 800 billion yuan ($128 billion) in domestic railway construction in 2015, the same as last year’s final target, while pledging to increase its railway makers’ overseas market share, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in his annual state-of-the-nation report earlier this year.

To bolster a slowing economy, the Chinese government has made railway infrastructure one of the seven prioritized sectors for investment and export.

China is competing aggressively for overseas rail projects, targeting emerging markets in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia while also pitching for high-profile contracts in the US and EU.

China’s two largest locomotive equipment makers, China CNR Corp. and CSR Corp., have jointly signed more than $6 billion of overseas contracts last year, up 60 per cent from 2013, official data shows.

TBP and Agencies