China Railway Corporation (CRC) announced that total fixed asset investment (FAI) in China's railways was 200.8 billion yuan ($29.4 billion) between January and April this year, up 3.2% year on year, 1.9 percentage points slower than the growth recorded in the first three months.
High base railway investment in January-April 2025 negatively impacted year-on-year growth over the same period in 2026. Meanwhile, in 2026, the CRC lowered its infrastructure investment target from the 2025 high of 901.5 billion yuan to 520 billion yuan ($76 billion), reflecting a strategic shift in railway construction from scale to quality and efficiency.
Although overall infrastructure investment in China slowed by one percent, the market still saw fairly large investments in high-speed railways that supported FAI on China Railways in 2025. However, as DAO Fortune President Yuan Wenjun noted, “China has moved from an investment-based economic model to a technology-based economic model.”
Steel consumption in China's overall infrastructure segment was 169 million tons in 2025, while it is projected to increase 1.8 percent to 172 million tons in 2026 year.
