China Railway Construction Corp wins 13.2b yuan of orders

China Railway Construction Corporation has won two contracts worth 13.2 billion yuan (HK$16.4 billion), the company announced on the Shanghai Stock Exchange website yesterday.

One is a 10 billion yuan contract for the transport system in the "Blue Silicon Valley" in Qingdao, Shandong province. The project will reclaim 159,500 square kilometres of land from the ocean in six cities, including Qingdao, and develop 64,000 sqkm of land, according to the website of Qingdao. The aim is to develop the area into an economic zone by 2015.

The second 3.2 billion yuan contract is to build part of a subway line in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province.

Separately, Xinhua quoted Beijing vice-mayor Chen Gang as saying the city's government would spend 100 billion yuan on an additional 200km of railway lines, which will increase the capital's subway network to 660km.

The central government also planned to spend 600 billion yuan building new rail links next year, with 60 per cent of the investment going to high-speed-rail projects, Reuters quoted Li Changjin, the chairman of China Railway Group, as saying.

China Railway and CRCC build most of the country's railways.