The construction of the long-awaited Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is to begin before China's Lunar New Year in early February 2008. China's Ministry of Railways has confirmed that that the official bidding for the construction project of this railway has been completed.
China's rapid economic development is greatly increasing the mobility of goods and people. So far, however, inland transportation capacity still lags far behind actual demand in China. Particularly, the capacity of the country's railways, as the most important means of transportation, is inadequate. In this context, the government has been increasing its efforts to manufacture high-speed rails and trains. The construction of high-speed rails is also a very important development for the steel industry in China.
The major high-speed railway projects that have been completed or planned in China since 1998 are: the Qinghuangdao-Shenyang high-speed railway - with a total length of 404 km and a top speed of 321.5 km/h; the Guangzhou-Shenzhen high-speed railway - with a total length of 147 km and a top speed of 240 km/h; and also the Fuzhou-Xiamen and Beijing-Tianjin high-speed railways. Certainly, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway project is more impressive than the others, with a total length of 1,318 km, investment over RMB 200 billion ($27.6 billion) and a cruising/top speed of 300/350 km/h. Total demand for rail steel in this project is estimated at around 300-350,000 mt. Currently, invitations to participate in the tender for the supply of rails for the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway are being issued.
So far, only four steelmakers have qualified to bid to supply rails for the Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway: Panzhihua Steel, Anshan Steel, Baotou Steel and Wuhan Steel. The first three of these mills account for 90 percent of total long rail production capacity in China which is suitable for high-speed trains.
According to China's medium-and-long-term strategic development plans for its railways, by 2010 China's annual consumption of rail will be between 1.5-1.8 million metric tons. In addition, the total demand for all types of steel used in direct relation to the railways will be in the range of 4.5-5.5 million metric tons each year. Due to the strict requirements in connection with high-speed railway projects, high quality long steel rail will be used to a greater extend in major railway projects, with 100-meter long steel rail being the most important specification.