China Railway Corporation (CRC) has announced that total fixed asset investments (FAI) in China’s railways in the January-April period this year amounted to RMB 200.8 billion ($29.4 billion), up 3.2 percent year on year, 1.9 percentage points slower than the increase recorded in the first three months.
The high base of railway investment in the January-April period of 2025 negatively impacted the year-on-year growth in the same period of 2026. Meanwhile, in 2026, CRC has lowered its infrastructure investment target from the high level of 2025 (RMB 901.5 billion) to RMB 520 billion ($76 billion), reflecting a strategic shift in railway construction from scale expansion toward quality and efficiency.
Though overall investments in infrastructure in China slowed by one percent, the market still saw rather big investments in high-speed railways, which supported FAI in China’s railways in 2025. However, as president of Dao Fortune Yuan Wenjiong has noted, “China has shifted from an investment-driven economic model to a technology-driven economic model.”
The steel consumption of China’s overall infrastructure segment amounted to 169 million mt in 2025, while it is projected to increase by 1.8 percent to 172 million mt in 2026.