China's railway investment up 120% in Jan-May

Published: 19 Jun 2009 01:30:03 PST

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Jun. 19, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China's railway fix-asset investment surpassed RMB 168.9 billion in the first five months of this year, reflecting a year-on-year surge of 120%, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Railways (MOR).

Investment in railway infrastructure construction surged 161.8% from a year earlier to RMB 149 billion during the period from January to May. In the same period, investment in railway upgrades was RMB 3.33 billion and investment in new trains was RMB 16.55 billion.

In the first five months, China's railway transportation volume reached 1.32 billion tons, down 4.6% from a year earlier. The decline rate contracted compared with the drop of 5.7% in the first four months.

In May alone, the transportation volume was down 2.6% from the previous year to 278.05 million tons, but the average daily volume edged up 0.7% compared with April.

The country built a total of 1,942.5 km of new railway in the first five months and put 1,385.8 km electrified railway into operation.

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