Large infrastructure projects in China a good sign for bauma China 2014

An increasing number of infrastructure projects in China is a good sign for attendance at the 2014 edition of bauma China.

Between November 25 to 28, 2014 it will be time for the seventh edition of bauma China, the International Trade Fair for Construction Machinery, Building Material Machines, Construction Vehicles and Equipment, taking place at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). Despite the current downturn in the Chinese economy, there are still many building projects in the People’s Republic which have an enormous investment volume.

632 meters: That’s how far the Shanghai Tower rises into the sky above the mega city of Shanghai, in the district of Pudong. This skyscraper is the highest building in the entire country and, after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, it is the second-highest in the world. This prestige project has an investment volume of 14.8 billion RMB, equivalent to 1.8 billion EUR. Although the tower reached its ultimate height in August last year, final completion and the official opening is not expected until 2015.

The real boom in the Chinese cities, however, is not measured on the vertical but on the horizontal scale. According to the German consultancy Far Eastern Consulting, every two days in China plans are drawn up for new residential and industrial districts the size of the Italian capital, Rome. The government-supported process of urbanization is seen in the People’s Republic as an important engine in the building sector and the economy as a whole.

Urbanization and industrialization consume great quantities of energy. Following coal, water is the second most important source of energy for generating electricity. Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s economic development agency, reports that installed capacity for hydroelectric power in China grew last year by over 12% to a total of 280 gigawatts (GW). Almost 125 billion RMB (around 15 billion EUR) was invested in expanding the country’s hydroelectric power capacity in 2013. Increasingly important, alongside the mega power stations on China’s rivers, are pumped-storage power stations, says the German Chamber of Commerce. One such – the biggest of its kind in the world – is currently being constructed in the province of Hebei, in the north of China. It will have a total installed capacity of 3.6 GW. Further growth in China will depend ever more on progress in expanding the infrastructure. In this field, too, projects of enormous dimensions are under way: for example, this year at least another 6,000 kilometers of brand new rail routes will be added to the 100,000 km or more of rail track that already crisscrosses the country.

The estimated costs for this expansion are 630 billion RMB (or approx. 75.5 billion EUR). The aim of the Chinese government is to expand the rail network to a total of 120,000 kilometers by the year 2020.

All these are projects with tremendous potential and all of them involve the implementation of the latest technology. For exhibitors at bauma China, this is good news indeed.

 

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