In Pakistan, the company has delivered 8,000
tons of track for the $1.6 billion Orange Line of
the Lahore Metro.
“Where the Belt and Road construction goes,
our railway tracks will follow,” said Wang Jun,
manager of Ansteel’s Bayuquan production base
in Yingkou.
State-owned Ansteel is among dozens of
suppliers of steel, industrial equipment and
other goods in the region that are pinning their
export hopes on Chinese building projects.
Liaoning was left behind as market-style
economic reforms transformed China’s east
coast and southeast into the world’s factory.
Most Belt and Road projects are financed
by Chinese bank loans and built by Chinese
contractors using technology, steel and other
materials from China.
The government releases no information on the
number of projects or the scale of investment.
Less than $200 billion had been spent through
the end of 2018, according to Derek Scissors at
the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
Liaoning’s exports to Belt and Road countries
rose 20.3% in the first quarter of 2019 from
a year earlier, according to the provincial
Commerce Department.
Sales to Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
doubled, said the department’s deputy director,
He Rui.
President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes have
dented Liaoning’s exports, but the United States
accounts for only 10% of its foreign sales of car
parts, refined oil and farm goods, said He.
Image: Olivia Zhang