The China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) is a

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

holding company of China, which is under the supervision of the State Council. The company is the major shareholder of

China Railway Group Limited China Railway Group Limited, known as CREC (the acronym of its predecessor and parent company China Railway Engineering Corporation), is a Chinese construction company which is traded on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The major sha ...

(CRGL), its subsidiary. CREC is one of the world's largest transportation infrastructure contractors.

History

The history of the company could be traced back to 1950 which two bureaus of the Ministry of Railways were formed ( and ). In 1958, the design bureau and the construction bureau were merged to form the General Bureau of Capital Construction of the Ministry of Railways (). From 1950 to 1990, the General Bureau was a government agency for many railway construction as well as highway bridge. A subsidiary of the General Bureau, The Major Bridge Engineering Bureau, now was said to construct over 1,000 bridges from 1953 to 2009. In 1989, the Ministry of Railways formed China Railway Engineering Corporation (; CRECG), which held former Ministry assets. CRECG was formally registered on 7 March 1990. In 2000, CREC was placed within the oversight of the Central Large-Scale Enterprise Work Commission. In 2003,CREC was placed under supervision of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), a commission of the State Council. Numbers of former subsidiary of CRECG were now belongs to CRCCG, such as . In 2006, Shi Dahua became the Chairman and Party Secretary of CREC. Shi oversaw limited diversification of CREC's core business (constructing transportation infrastructure and municipal projects) into the related areas of real estate, trade, and logistics. During Shi's tenure, CREC transferred, restructured, or sold, almost 100 subsidiaries unrelated to its core business. As part of its limited diversification, CREC created the subsidiary China Railway Real Estate Group. CREC focused primarily on China's domestic market, but Shi increased its international business as well. During Shi's tenure, CREC acquired 22 railway construction SOEs. These acquisitions increased CREC's assets by 25%. In 2007, CREC created the subsidiary

and listed some of its shares for sale on the

Hong Kong stock exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

and the

Shanghai stock exchange The Shanghai Stock Exchange (, SSE) is a stock exchange based in the city of Shanghai, China. It is one of the three stock exchanges operating independently in mainland China, the others being the Beijing Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock ...

the next year. In 2010, Shi was appointed to SASAC's board of supervisors and left CREC. Li Changjin became the Chairman and Party Secretary of CREC. Li maintained his predecessor's limited diversification policy and oriented CREC's business more to the international side. As part of its diversification, CREC expanded into the areas of airport construction, finance,

hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

, and

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

. During his tenure, Li has overseen a trend towards flattening out CREC's organizational structure, shortening the lines of authority between the CREC holding company and its subsidiaries. In 2013, CREC established the subsidiary China Railway International Group Limited, which became CREC's main platform for international business. Li Changjin's tenure at CREC ended in 2019. During the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, CREC was added to Ukraine's

International Sponsors of War International Sponsors of War () was a publicly-available list of companies and individuals maintained by the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) in connection with the Russo-Ukrainian War, particularly the Russian invasion of ...

list for continuing its operations in Russia. While numerous global corporations scaled back or fully exited the Russian market in response to the invasion and subsequent international sanctions, CREC chose to maintain its presence. Research conducted by the

Yale School of Management The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Admi ...

categorized CREC in the "Grade F" tier of "Digging In," indicating its refusal to reduce or terminate activities in Russia. CREC is a leading developer of transportation infrastructure both domestically and in other countries. As of 2024, it is the second-largest global infrastructure contractor in the world.

Selected projects

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

CRECG with Ministry of Public Works and Transport planned the

Siem Reap Siem Reap (, ) is the second-largest city of Cambodia, as well as the capital and largest city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia. Siem Reap possesses French-colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter ...

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since 1865 and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its political, economic, industr ...

- Doun Kaev - Kampot High Speed Railway. *

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

China Railway Engineering Corporation with Ministry of Transport of Jordan planned the Amman Metro. *

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

A joint venture between Italian Thai Development and a CRECG subsidiary planned the construction of a new State Audit Office headquarter that collapsed during

2025 Myanmar Earthquake On 28 March 2025 at 12:50:52 Myanmar Time, MMT (06:20:52 UTC), a 7.7–7.9 earthquake struck the Sagaing Region of Myanmar, with an epicenter close to Mandalay, the country's second-largest city. The strike-slip shock achieved a maximum Modif ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Government-owned companies of China Chinese companies established in 1958 Holding companies established in 2007 Chinese companies established in 2007 Chinese companies established in 1990 1990 in Beijing