Picking Up Steam: The Expansion of Chinese Railways in Africa
If everything happens as planned, the construction of the new East Africa railway signed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Kenyan president Kenyatta earlier this year will formally commence in October. The railway will link the Kenyan port city of Mombasa with Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan and is hoped to rejuvenate the existing but outdated East Africa railway system. According to a report by Bloomberg, China Exim Bank will provide 90 percent of the $3.8 billion cost of the project and Kenya will finance the remainder. One of Chinas largest overseas construction contractors, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) will be the lead contractor of the project. The project has been cheered in Africa as a historical event for East Africas regional connectivity and integration, as well as in China for another success by Chinese companies in the railway construction business and the expansion of Chinese railway standards in the continent.
In the past few years, Chinese railway construction companies have achieved great business successes in Africa. At the top of a long list, in August 2014, China Railway 20 Bureau Group Corporation (CR20) completed the $1.83 billion reconstruction of the Benguela railway that connects Angola, Zambia and southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Meanwhile, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has been building the $4 billion, 740-km electric railway that connects Addis Ababa and Djibouti, as well as the $5.6 billion Chad railway network since 2012. CCECC also secured the $13 billion coastal railway project with the Nigerian Ministry of Transportation in May 2014. CRBCs success in nailing down the East Africa railway is the latest, but likely not the last success of the Chinese railway construction contractors African expedition.
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2014/09/26-chinese-railways-in-africa-sun