Recently, China Railway Corporation disclosed that 14 railway projects across the country have started construction in a concentrated manner. These 14 new projects have a total length of 3,712 kilometers and an investment scale of 327.3 billion yuan. Industry insiders say that the concentrated start of railway projects will drive demand for related construction machinery and will gradually manifest an indirect pulling effect on related industries such as steel.

　　Railway construction sets off another climax
　　According to the plan, during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the investment in national railway construction in the central and western regions will be 1.85 trillion yuan, and 23,000 kilometers of new lines will be put into operation, accounting for 72% and 77% respectively. In the first three years of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the central and western regions completed construction investment of 1.15 trillion yuan and put 7,000 kilometers of new lines into operation, accounting for 72% and 58% respectively. This year, the proportion of construction investment and new lines put into operation in the central and western regions will be further increased, reaching 78% and 86% respectively.

　　In the first half of this year, China Railway Corporation has raised this year's railway construction targets three times: national railway fixed asset investment increased to 800 billion yuan, reaching the second highest level in history; the mileage of new railway lines put into operation increased to more than 7,000 kilometers, and the number of new projects increased to 64; at the same time, 20 reserve projects were arranged to accelerate preliminary work and strive to complete scientific research work within the year.

　　By 2015, China's railway operating mileage will increase to 123,000 kilometers. From 2014 to 2015, the newly added operating mileage will be 19,500 kilometers, with high-speed railways (passenger dedicated lines), western railways, and network densification as development priorities.

　　From the above data, it seems that the peak period of China's railway construction will continue in the next few years.

　　Large and broad demand for construction machinery

　　Railway construction includes subgrade construction, railway bridge construction, and later station building construction, etc. These projects require a large amount of construction machinery, and depending on the project, the types of construction machinery required also show the characteristics of large quantity and wide range.

　　For example, subgrade engineering has a large amount of civil engineering work, mainly involving earthwork construction machinery and transport vehicles; for high-standard passenger dedicated lines and high-speed railway projects, foundation construction in subgrade engineering is particularly important, requiring foundation drilling rigs (rotary drilling rigs and long spiral drilling rigs), concrete machinery, and steel processing equipment; in bridge engineering construction, concrete machinery, lifting machinery, hydraulic formwork, steel processing equipment, beam transport vehicles, beam lifting machines, bridge erection machines, mobile formwork bridge construction machines, and power equipment are needed; in station building engineering, the most used are excavators, bulldozers, loaders, road rollers, rotary drilling rigs, concrete mixing stations, concrete pumps and pump trucks, truck cranes, etc.

　　Although since the beginning of this year, the performance of construction machinery in the machinery industry has not been outstanding. In May, the export delivery value of the construction machinery industry was 2.71 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth rate of negative 6.57% and a month-on-month growth rate of negative 10.93%. From January to May, the export delivery value of the construction machinery industry was 12.543 billion yuan, with a cumulative year-on-year growth rate of negative 5.89%. However, industry insiders say that due to the concentrated start of multiple railway projects and the continuous development of national urbanization, the operation of the construction machinery industry in the second half of the year is still worth looking forward to.

　　Steel for construction machinery calls for high-end

　　The construction machinery industry is a major steel consumer, with steel consumption second only to the construction industry. Steel used in construction machinery generally accounts for more than 30% of the total equipment cost and has the characteristics of many varieties and a wide range of specifications. The steel consumption varieties in the construction machinery industry are mainly medium and heavy plates, high-quality bars, and sections. Among them, medium and heavy plates have the largest consumption, followed by bars, sections, and other steel varieties.

　　As construction machinery has gradually developed towards large-scale and lightweight in recent years, construction machinery such as excavators, loaders, cranes, and large dump trucks require their component materials to have higher yield strength and fatigue strength, good impact toughness, cold formability, and excellent weldability.

　　In this regard, Chinese steel enterprises have made relatively successful attempts. In 2010, with the commissioning of the imported strong leveling unit of Shougang Qiangang Company, Shougang had the equipment conditions to produce leveling plates of 700MPa yield strength high-strength steel for construction machinery, and relying on Shougang Qiangang Company's 2250 and 1580 hot rolling production lines and strong leveling units, developed SQ700MCD high-strength steel for construction machinery with good plasticity, toughness, and welding performance, and achieved stable batch supply.

　　In 2013, the high-strength wear-resistant steel plate NM450 for construction machinery developed by Wuhan Iron and Steel Group completed industrial trial production, and all performance indicators of the test steel reached international levels.

　　In June this year, the No. 2 slab continuous casting machine of the new steelmaking area of Laiwu Steel under Shandong Iron and Steel Group successfully produced HQ100 high-strength wear-resistant steel for construction machinery, and the product quality met the regulations. This steel grade is a low-alloy quenched and tempered high-strength wear-resistant steel developed in China in recent years to meet the development needs of the construction machinery industry. It not only has high strength and good low-temperature notch toughness but also has excellent welding performance. It is an indispensable high-strength welded structural steel for the manufacture of large mechanical equipment such as construction machinery, mining machinery, and transport vehicles.

　　However, industry insiders say that at present, overall, China's high-strength steel plates for construction machinery still have problems such as low qualification rate, poor surface quality, poor quality stability, and some high-end products still relying on imports. Facing the large market for construction machinery, leading construction machinery enterprises are continuously improving their product quality, which puts higher requirements on the strength grade and quality stability of steel materials. Steel enterprises should also seek opportunities from this and increase research and development efforts for high-strength steel for construction machinery.