On track for high-speed growth

China has helped or indicated its interest to build thousands of kilometers of high-speed track in countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, though it has yet to sell a high-speed train abroad.

A Chinese consortium was also the only competitor to present a bid for a tender to build a 210-km high-speed rail line in Mexico, the Mexican government said last week.

"The Chinese market right now is booming, and there's a very high level of investment, but five, 10 years down the road will it still be at this level? We don't know. So it makes sense for these companies to want to diversify their revenue streams," Barclays analyst Yang Song said.

Project details published on SunGroup's website show the consortium is putting forward the CRH380BL train, a model used on the Beijing-Shanghai line, which can travel up to 380 km per hour.

Sun said an initial order would probably be about 18 to 20 trains and that the company would open a factory to make the trains in California if they won the bid, as required by US law.

The consortium also intends to bid for the next available contracts to build track sections of the line. A group led by Tutor Perini is building the first segment, while consortiums that include Dragados and Samsung are bidding for the next construction package.

China-led group sole bidder for Mexican rail construction deal	New rail projects to boost growth