BEIJING, Aug. 1 - The RMB14.3 billion Beijing-Tianjin high speed rail service officially began this morning with the first train setting off from Beijing’s South Railway Station.

Operational just in time for the Olympics, the service reaches 350 kilometers per hour, making it the worlds fastest. Similar trains in Japan and Spain run at 320 kph, while in France, Germany and Italy they run at 300 kph (though France’s TGV holds the record for the world’s fastest train at 574.8 kph). (more…)

By Jean-Charles Briand and Anna Sellger 

April 18 - Perhaps no other region has played so vital a role in China’s growth as the Yangtze River Delta. Home to Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejian provinces, the delta has become the country’s commercial core, accounting for roughly 20 percent of GDP and nearly half of all foreign direct investment, according to Xinhua News Agency. As part of our series focusing on China’s hotspots, we look closely at the YRD and the infrastructure that keeps its economy humming, from the harbors and airports that provide gateways to the outside world to the roads and railways crisscrossing its interior. What emerges is a picture of mixed development that has created benefits—and challenges—for the region.

Harbors and airports
Among the toughest challenges has been implementing a unified plan for the region’s harbors. While Shanghai is still the delta’s major destination point for cargo ships, its rapid growth has brought about opportunities for neighboring cities looking to support their own ports. As a result, some cities now compete almost as much as they cooperate with the region’s megalopolis. Ningbo, for example, is expanding berths at its harbor – considered the nation’s best natural deepwater port – even as Shanghai finishes work on a new deepwater port of its own at Yangshan Island. (more…)

Mar. 31 - China’s logistics sector realized RMB1.7 trillion in added value last year, a growth of 20.3 percent on the previous year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

The growth rate was 5.2 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level.

The added value accounted for 17.6 percent of the total added value for the service industry at large, up 0.5 percentage points year-on-year. It made up 6.9 percent of China’s gross domestic product (GDP), up 0.2 percentage points.

Last year saw the sector’s gross business volume amount to RMB75.2trillion, up 26.2 percent. The growth rate was 2.2 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level. (more…)

SHANGHAI, Mar. 24 - The container throughput of Shanghai’s seaport is expected to see stable growth of about 10 percent a year until 2010, said a port administration official at the China Ports Future Forum in Shanghai on Friday.

This projected growth is attributed to the booming economy in the Yangtze River Delta and preparations for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo said the director-general of the municipal port administration, Xu Peixin.

According to Xu, “high value-added port services will be the key focus, supported by the government’s investment and financial policies” for future development of the port.

According to statistics published by China Daily, container throughput at the port rose to 560 million tons last year, up 4.2 percent from 2006. Last year Shanghai’s cargo shipments increased by 26.15 million TEUs, moving it passed Hong Kong as the world’s second-largest container seaport after Singapore.

Xu said forward-looking policy measures for the port will include a more diversified investment strategy to enhance its competitive edge.

Port invests US$3.5 billion for international expansion over next three years

Mar. 20 - The Ningbo Port Group, based in the eastern city of Ningbo, just 90 minutes from Shanghai, has announced aggressive expansion plans including a US$600 million investment into an unspecified European port complex, its chairman Li Linghong stated. The group, which has been maximizing its strategic position as the nearest deep water port to Shanghai, where Yangtze River silting is limiting development, is already the fourth largest port internationally, and the second largest in China, expecting to handle 11 million TEUs this year and to some 20 million TEU by 2012.

The group also owns berths in the Chinese cities of Zhoushan, Wenzhou, Tiazhou and Jiaxing in its home province in Zhejiang, and Taicang and Nanjing in the neighboring province of Jiangsu, and is scheduled to obtain a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai later this year. In terms of global development, Li mentioned that the company had already signed a US$600million agreement to invest in a major European port development, although he declined to provide further details. He said that the company growth would follow those of Singapore’s PSA International and Hong Kong Hutchinson Whampoa in seeking to develop, operate and profit from port facilities around the world.

The group operates a further five ports in Ningbo, which has steadily been developing as a deep water facility, reshipment and processing center since the reality of Shanghai’s Yangtze River silting problems surfaced 20 years ago. Ningbo Port Group realized pre-tax profits of US$300 million last year. (more…)

SHANGHAI, Mar. 17 - Foreign trade in East China’s Shanghai port rose 20.3 percent year-on-year to US$91.06 billion in the first two months of 2008, according to Customs statistics.

The figure accounted for 24.9 percent of the country’s total trade value of US$365.93 billion from January to February.

Exports climbed 17.2 percent, 20.7 percentage points lower than the period from a year earlier, to US$58.59 billion. Mechanical and electronics products accounted for around 60 percent of total exports.

Imports jumped 26.3 percent to US$32.47 billion,10.8 percentage points higher from the same period last year Shanghai Customs said. (more…)

BEIJING, Mar. 10 - As we alluded to February 26, the Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun has encouraged overseas and domestic private investors to invest in China’s rail infrastructure as country steps up construction of its railway network.

“We welcome overseas and domestic private investors to get part ownership of the railway lines, except the trunk rails,” Liu said on the sidelines of the annual National People’s Congress (NPC) session.

This is a major step in investment reform and will get the government “ample capital” to realize its plan to expand the railway network from the present 70,000 km to 120,000 km by 2012 Liu said.

Potential investors remain wearing of investing in China’s railways, due mostly to the government’s control of the transport pricing regime. (more…)

Mar. 4 - China’s shipbuilding tonnage jumped 30 percent to 18.93 million tons in 2007, the country’s top economic planning agency said Saturday.

China, the world’s third-largest shipbuilder after Korea and Japan, accounted for 23 percent of the world’s market share, an increase of four percent over 2006.

A total of 14.9 million tons of ships in tonnage were exported to 151 countries and regions, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. That number represented an increase of 25.6 percent. Export values rose 51.1 percent to US$12.24 billion.

According to Xinhua, the country’s new shipbuilding orders in tonnage soared 132 percent to 98.45 million tons last year. The figure accounted for 42 percent of the world’s total, up 12 percentage points from a year earlier. (more…)

SHANGHAI, Feb. 26 - The National Development and Reform Commission approved a plan to build a high-speed rail passenger rail link between Shanghai and Nanjing.

The US$5.52 billion line will take four years to complete and shorten travel time on the 300 kilometer route from two hours to 72 minutes Xinhua reported. Once completed, trains will run 24 hours a day at intervals of three minutes during peak hours. (more…)

Jan. 28 – Construction will hopefully start this year on two railways linking China’s westernmost Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region with the central Asian nations of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Xinjiang government sources said.

The railway, expected to be completed within the year, will link Korgas on the China-Kazakhstan border with China’s inland railways. From the border, the US$861 million railway will extend west, joining the Sary-Ozek railway of Kazakhstan to become the second cross-border rail link between the two countries. (more…)