Since the beginning of this year, the state has attached great importance to investment in infrastructure construction, continuously increasing funding input and policy support to inject strong momentum into economic growth. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to July, national fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) reached 288,229 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.6%. Among this, infrastructure investment grew by 3.2% year-on-year, 1.6 percentage points higher than total investment, contributing 43.0% to total investment growth, up 6.0 percentage points from the first half of the year.

This shows that infrastructure investment plays a key supporting role in stabilizing the overall economy and promoting high-quality economic development. Numerous major infrastructure projects have commenced or accelerated, becoming a focus of the economic field.

I. Construction Status of Major Infrastructure Projects in 2025

Currently, China has entered a stage of high-quality development, and the planning and construction of various super projects show greater emphasis on technological innovation, ecological protection, regional coordination, and national security. From transportation, energy, and water conservancy to science and technology and urban construction, a series of super engineering projects with large investment scale, long construction periods, high technical difficulty, and wide-ranging impact are being advanced in an orderly manner.

01 | Yarlung Tsangpo River Downstream Hydropower Station Project

On July 19, 2025, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Yarlung Tsangpo River downstream hydropower project was held in Nyingchi City, Tibet Autonomous Region. According to reports, this super project has a total investment exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan. The project plans to build five cascade hydropower stations through river bend cutoff and straightening and water diversion via tunnels, with a total installed capacity of 60 million kilowatts and annual power generation of nearly 300 billion kWh, equivalent to the scale of three Three Gorges power stations. The project construction period is 10 years, making it the largest hydropower station project currently planned in the world.

The construction of the Yarlung Tsangpo downstream hydropower station project has brought development space to many industries and enterprises. For example, investment related to construction machinery accounts for at least 15% of the total project investment, corresponding to a market size exceeding 180 billion yuan. At the same time, because hydropower station construction relies on medium- and large-tonnage equipment, whose profit margins are generally higher than those of small machinery, if calculated at a 10% profit margin, the industry's profit space is expected to exceed 18 billion yuan, bringing unprecedented performance elasticity to the construction machinery industry.

02 | China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway

The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway is a landmark project of Belt and Road cooperation personally promoted by the heads of state of China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. After 28 years of planning, it has finally been implemented. At 12:00 Beijing time on April 29, construction started on three key control tunnels—Fergana Mountain, Naryn No. 1, and Koshtobe—on the Kyrgyzstan section of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, marking that the main line project has entered the substantive construction stage.

The railway has a total length of approximately 523 kilometers. Once completed, it will become the shortest route for transporting goods from China to Europe and the Middle East, shortening the freight distance by 900 kilometers and saving 7 to 8 days. The total construction cost is estimated at 4.665 billion US dollars. Such a large-scale investment will drive substantial human, material, and financial resources into project construction.

Railway construction content is complex and covers a large number of tunnel and bridge projects. This not only brings new revenue growth points to construction enterprises, but also promotes experience accumulation and technological innovation in the construction industry in areas such as cross-border project collaboration and construction technology in complex environments. At the same time, the complex construction environment makes various types of construction machinery indispensable forces in the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, greatly stimulating market demand in the construction machinery industry.

03 | Xinjiang-Tibet Railway

On August 7, 2025, Xinjiang-Tibet Railway Co., Ltd. was officially established. The company is wholly owned by China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., with registered capital as high as 95 billion yuan. This marks that the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway project has entered the substantive advancement stage, and some sections will start construction this year. According to CITIC Securities estimates, the total investment in the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway may reach 400 billion yuan. This is another super project spanning the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau after the 1.2 trillion yuan investment in the Yarlung Tsangpo downstream hydropower station.

The Xinjiang-Tibet Railway starts from Hotan in Xinjiang in the north, passes southward through Shigatse in Tibet, and finally reaches Lhasa in Tibet, with a total length of about 2,000 kilometers. The project is large in scale and is expected to be advanced in sections. The Xinjiang section (Hotan to the provincial boundary) has a total length of 462.6 kilometers and is currently progressing relatively quickly. China Railway Urumqi Group Co., Ltd. has clearly listed it as a key task for 2025, and bidding announcements show that construction may start as early as November 2025.

For the Tibet section, according to the plan, the Shigatse to Peikucuo section is 403 kilometers long, and the Peikucuo to Hotan section is 1,660 kilometers long. Although the 14th Five-Year Plan of the Tibet Autonomous Region required a start in 2025, due to the longer route and greater engineering difficulty, actual progress is slightly slower than that of the Xinjiang section. Reports indicate that the Shigatse to Peikucuo section in Tibet is striving to start construction in 2026. It is expected that the Peikucuo to Hotan section will target full completion and opening by 2030. Referring to the construction method of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, the overall construction period of the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway may be as long as 10 years.

In addition to the above major infrastructure projects, there are many other projects starting or under construction in 2025, including in multiple fields such as transportation, water conservancy, and energy, such as the following major projects:

Chang-Gan High-Speed Railway: The Chang-Gan High-Speed Railway is an important component of the Xiamen-Chongqing corridor, with a main line length of 429.459 kilometers (131.886 kilometers in Hunan and 297.573 kilometers in Jiangxi). It is a double-track electrified passenger dedicated line with a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour. The planned start date for the Jiangxi section is August 15, 2025, and the planned completion date is August 15, 2030.

Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link: Starting from Qianhai in Shenzhen in the east, crossing the Pearl River Estuary, and ending at Zhuhai High-tech Zone in the west, it is located between the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. It is the first cross-sea road-rail dual-purpose link in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The link is planned as a road-rail composite corridor with functions of high-speed railway, intercity railway, and expressway.

Zhejiang-Jiangxi-Guangdong Canal: Officially launched in June 2025, with a total investment of 320 billion yuan and a total length of 1,237 kilometers, connecting Hangzhou and Guangzhou and running through Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong provinces. It is expected to be fully navigable by 2035.

Yin Da Ji Min Project: The Yin Da Ji Min Project is the "No. 1 Project" of Sichuan Province and is planned to start construction within 2025. The project diverts water from the Dadu River to the Chengdu Plain, with a total water conveyance line length of 304.4 kilometers, a static total investment of 57.4 billion yuan, and a total construction period of 96 months. The water supply scope covers the Dujiangyan water supply area and the Yuxi River water supply area, involving 43 counties in 8 cities including Chengdu and Deyang.

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The above cases are only some representatives of China's major infrastructure projects in 2025. In fact, more infrastructure projects covering transportation, energy, water conservancy, and other fields have started or are about to start, jointly forming a boom in infrastructure development.

II. Impact of Major Infrastructure on Related Industries

As the issuance and use of local government special bonds and ultra-long-term special government bonds accelerate, the construction of "Two Major" areas (major infrastructure and major industrial projects) will further speed up. It is expected that in the second half of the year, infrastructure investment will continue to maintain steady growth and play a greater role in stabilizing investment and growth.

The advancement of major infrastructure projects will have a broad impact on the construction industry, the construction machinery industry, and others.

First is the construction machinery industry. The commencement and construction of numerous major infrastructure projects will directly drive market demand for construction machinery. For example, the large-scale construction of the Yarlung Tsangpo downstream hydropower station requires a large amount of excavation machinery, lifting machinery, concrete machinery, and other equipment for tunnel excavation, dam foundation treatment, concrete pouring, and other operations; the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway and the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway also cannot do without the support of various types of construction machinery in links such as tunnel excavation, bridge erection, and subgrade construction.

In the face of complex construction environments and high-standard construction requirements, infrastructure projects place higher demands on the technical performance and intelligent level of construction machinery, which will prompt construction machinery enterprises to increase R&D investment and promote technological innovation. For example, the application of intelligent, unmanned, and green construction equipment will improve construction efficiency, reduce labor intensity and construction risks, and better meet the needs of green construction.

In addition, international cooperation projects such as the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway provide opportunities for construction machinery enterprises to expand overseas markets. By participating in major international infrastructure projects, construction machinery enterprises can enhance their international brand influence, accumulate overseas project experience, further expand international market share, and promote Chinese construction machinery products and technologies to the world.

Second is the impact on upstream and downstream of the construction industry, such as building construction and building materials. Large infrastructure projects are huge in scale and have enormous demand for building materials such as cement, steel, and sand and gravel. This will bring broad market space to building materials enterprises and promote the development of the building materials industry. At the same time, in order to meet the demand for high-quality building materials in large infrastructure construction, building materials enterprises will increase technological transformation and product upgrading efforts and improve product quality and production efficiency. This will not only help enhance the competitiveness of local building materials enterprises, but also drive the development of related industrial chains such as mining and logistics transportation.

Major infrastructure projects are not only the "ballast stone" driving economic growth, but also important support for national strategic layout and coordinated regional development. With the successive launch and construction of multiple major infrastructure projects, China's infrastructure system is ushering in a new round of quality improvement and upgrading. These projects will play an important role in stimulating investment, promoting employment, and driving industrial chain development, injecting lasting momentum into building a new development pattern.