THE RAIL MARKET IN CHINA - 2014 Image: Bruce Evans BROOKS MARKET INTELLIGENCE REPORTS, VISIT US AT WWW.BROOKSREPORTS.COM THE RAIL MARKET IN CHINA - 2014 Brooks Events Ltd © 2014. All rights reserved. A Brooks Reports Publication No guarantee can be given as to the correctness and/or completeness of the information provided in this document. Users are recommended to verify the reliability of the statements made before making any decisions based on them. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any binding, cover or electronic format other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser / borrower. BROOKS MARKET INTELLIGENCE REPORTS, VISIT US AT WWW.BROOKSREPORTS.COM CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 1. PUBLIC RAILWAY SYSTEMS Background 6 General information 6 China Railway Corporation organisation 8 Joint-venture railways 9 Local railways 11 Traffic: public railways 11 Public railway planning 12 Public railway investment and funding 12 Infrastructure development 13 High-speed passenger lines 14 High-standard mixed traffic lines 15 General mixed traffic lines 15 Heavy-haul coal lines 15 Infrastructure elements 16 Viaducts and major bridges 16 Tunnels 17 Track-work 17 Electrification 18 Signalling and communications 18 Rolling stock 19 Electric locomotives 19 Diesel locomotives 20 EMUs 21 DMUs 22 Passenger coaches 23 Freight wagons 24 Container / intermodal transport 25 International border crossings 26 New line design and construction 26 2. INDUSTRIAL RAILWAY SYSTEMS 27 3. URBAN RAILWAY SYSTEMS 28 Background 28 Metro and monorail systems 29 Beijing 29 Chongqing 29 Guangzhou and Foshan 30 Shanghai 30 Shenzhen 31 Tianjin 32 Other metro systems 33 Suppliers 34 Engineering and design 34 THE RAIL MARKET IN CHINA - 2014 Brooks Events Ltd©2014 3 Light rail systems 34 Changchun 34 Dalian 35 Nanjing 35 Shenyang 35 Suzhou 35 Systems under construction or planned 36 Suppliers 37 4. RAIL INDUSTRY MANUFACTURING 38 5. CHINA’S RAIL INDUSTRY EXPORTS 42 THE RAIL MARKET IN CHINA - 2014 Brooks Events Ltd©2014 4 INTRODUCTION China has seen remarkable and ongoing rapid development of its public railway system over the 30 years since the early 1980s, and expansion and extensive upgrading is continuing at great pace. Thirty years ago the country’s rail network was technically not up to the standards found in Western Europe, North America and Japan, but in many respects China has now become a leader in railway development. Its public railways are now the world’s most intensively used, the network now has the longest high-speed passenger rail system and the greatest length of electrified main line railway. China has also become a major exporter of railway equipment and materials. The country’s public railway system is characterised by the high intensity of both freight and passenger traffic levels on its main lines, a feature that has presented many challenges not encountered to the same degree elsewhere. China is largely self-sufficient as far as railway planning, design and construction and the supply of materials and equipment are concerned. Foreign specialist technology and expertise though are drawn in where China’s own railway industries are lacking in knowledge or equipment, particularly where a new area of railway knowledge is entered into. Examples of this include dedicated high-speed passenger railways and mechanised track maintenance. Urban railway system development in China began in earnest in the early 1990s to cope with rapid urbanisation and since then has been as impressive as the development of the national network. It started with metro systems in a few major cities and spread steadily to most large conurbations throughout the country. More recently several cities have begun to develop new and upgraded modern tramway or light rail systems. As well as an extensive and intensively used public railway network, China also has many industrial systems serving mines, steelworks, smelters and other industries. Some are significant in size, with large fleets of locomotives and extensive track lengths. Apart from key network and traffic figures, statistics covering China’s public railways are not readily available publically. It will be noted that many statistics in this document are estimates and these are based on information obtained from industry journals and their websites, Internet websites dedicated to Chinese railway matters and the personal knowledge of the contributors to this document. Similarly, much of the information regarding urban systems has been obtained from industry journals and Internet websites, as well as from operators’ own material. April 2014 THE RAIL MARKET IN CHINA - 2014 Brooks Events Ltd©2014 5 1 PUBLIC RAILWAY SYSTEMS BACKGROUND Until March 2013 the key government entity involved in public railways in China was the now defunct Ministry of Railways (MoR). Pressure to reform the MoR had built-up due to factors such as its severe debt situation, a serious accident involving two high-speed trains at Wenzhou in 2011 and concerns about fraud and corruption within the ministry. The Chinese government took the decision to disband the MoR and split its functions between a new regulatory railway section (National Railway Administration) within the Ministry of Transport and a new organisation called the China Railway Corporation (CR). The CR was formally founded on 14 March 2013, taking over the commercial and operations functions of the MoR and leaving regulatory activities such as service quality, setting and monitoring technical and safety standards and aspects of new infrastructure project supervision to the new administration within the Ministry of Transport. China has three main categories of public non-urban railways; in addition public services are operated over some of the larger industrial systems. Of the three categories the main national railway system makes up the principal one covering much of the countrywide rail network. The second most important category comprises the joint-venture railways. This form of ownership, which generally involved the MoR as an important shareholder, was first introduced in the late 1980s to facilitate access to additional sources of funding. The joint- venture form of ownership has since been widely used. The third category, which is a minor one that has existed for many years, comprises local railways which with a few exceptions are lightly trafficked, low-standard short lines. The local railway category includes some of the few remaining 762 mm gauge public railways in China. The MoR or its government successor entities are generally not involved in the ownership of this category of railway. The Chinese public railway system has seen rapid growth in traffic as the economy has expanded. However, at the same time China has placed great importance on developing a high-standard highway and expressway network in the country. This has allowed rapid growth of competing long-distance road-based freight and passenger options. While freight traffic on the railway network has grown substantially, rail’s share of the country’s total freight market has fallen to around 25% from around 50% 25 years ago. Pressure to increase rail freight tariffs to more market-related levels may see this trend continue. THE RAIL MARKET IN CHINA - 2014 Brooks Events Ltd©2014 6 GENERAL INFORMATION Route lengths 60-100 route-km 1,520 mm and dual 1,520 mm/1,435 mm gauge (at national border crossings with Russia and Kazakhstan) 100,000 route-km 1,435 mm gauge 650 route-km 1,000 mm gauge (Kunming to Vietnamese border in Yunnan Province) 300-400 route-km 762 mm gauge (various local railways) Total – National railways: 89,000 route-km Total – Joint-venture railways: 9,000 route-km Total – Local railways: 4,000 route-km Overall total: Approximately 102,000 route-km at end of 2012, with considerable new line construction in progress. (Route lengths are approximate as at end 2012.) Multiple track Double track: Approximately 40,000 route-km, of which about 800 route-km are on joint-venture railways. (Estimates as at end 2012). Triple and quadruple track: On only a small number of important lines, e.g. Guangzhou-Shenzhen and Beijing-Tianjin. Short lengths elsewhere at junctions, etc. Electrification 25 kV AC 50 HZ: Approximately 50,000 route-km, of which about 900 route-km are on joint-venture railways. (Estimates as at end 2012). 1.5 kV DC: Restricted to some industrial and mining railway systems. Locomotive/EMU/DMU Electric locomotives: 10,000 (all 1,435 mm gauge) fleet Diesel locomotives: 10,000 (most 1,435 mm gauge, some 1,520 mm and 1,000 mm gauges) EMU cars (high-speed): 8,500 (all 1,435 mm gauge) DMU cars: 250 (all 1,435 mm gauge) Of the above approximately 400 electric and 700 diesel locomotives are joint-venture railway-owned and approximately 200 diesel locomotives are local railway-owned. (Estimated fleets as at end 2012.) Rolling stock Freight wagons: 640,000 Passenger coaches (excluding EMU/DMU cars): 53,000 (NB: Estimated fleets as at end 2012) Staff 2,050,000 CR headquarters 10 Fuxingmen Road, Haidan District, Beijing 100844 CR website www.china-railway.com.cn Railway network map Map in Chinese showing existing and planned railway lines available from the CR website. THE RAIL MARKET IN CHINA - 2014 Brooks Events Ltd©2014 7 CHINA RAILWAY CORPORATION ORGANISATION During early 2013 the Chinese national railways underwent a major organisational change in its top structures. The MoR (Ministry of Railways) was disbanded and commercial, operational, infrastructure maintenance and other functions were taken over by the new China Railway Corporation (CR) formally established on 14 March 2013. CR has been placed initially under the control of the Ministry of Finance.