China’s railway fixed asset investment continued to decline. In the first five months of 2022, China’s railway fixed asset investment totaled 192.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.55%, of which 34.8 billion yuan was completed in May, a year-on-year decrease of 20.73%. The State Railway Administration of China recently released data showing the above.
Since the beginning of this year, railway fixed asset investment has been decreasing for 2 consecutive months, and the accumulated value of the first 5 months has shown a decreasing trend in 4 months. From January to May 2022, the year-on-year growth of cumulative investment in railways in each month was -4.8%, -0.08‰, 3.1%, -1.4% and -5.6% respectively.
In the first quarter, China’s railway investment in fixed assets reached 106.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.1%. This is the highest investment in the first quarter since the revocation of the Ministry of Railways in 2013, and it is also the extreme value of railway investment in the last quarter in history. After entering April this year, railway investment has declined rapidly. In April, China’s railway fixed asset investment was only 50.96 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.64%.
From January to April, China’s railways opened 581 kilometers of new lines, including 358 kilometers of high-speed railways, completing 17.61% and 25.57% of the planned target value for the year respectively. In 2022, the railway plans to put into operation more than 3,300 kilometers of new lines, including about 1,400 kilometers of high-speed railways.
From 2019 to 2021, the mileage of China’s railways and high-speed railways will be 8,489 kilometers, 5,474 kilometers, 4,933 kilometers, 2,900 kilometers, 4,208 kilometers, and 2,168 kilometers, respectively. In relation to the planned number of new railway lines put into operation in 2022, it can be seen that the mileage of railways and high-speed railways has been declining for four consecutive years.
In 2021, China Railway completed a fixed asset investment of 748.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.22%, the lowest in eight years. The China Railway Group did not announce the target value of railway investment in 2022, but the market generally believed that the railway construction intensity in 2022 will still operate at a low level.
In terms of railway transportation, the national railway freight volume continued to grow. In the first five months of this year, the freight volume broke the 1.6 billion ton mark for the first time, and a total of 1.618 billion tons of goods were sent, a year-on-year increase of 4.86%. This is a record high for the same period since the establishment of China National Railway Group and its predecessor China Railway Corporation after the revocation of the Ministry of Railways in 2013.
