China Railway Engineering Corporation

The China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) is a state-owned holding company of China, which is under the supervision of the State Council. The company is the major shareholder of China Railway Group Limited (CRGL), its subsidiary. CREC is one of the world's largest transportation infrastructure contractors.
The history of the company could be traced back to 1950 which two bureaus of the Ministry of Railways were formed (Chinese: 工程总局; lit. 'construction bureau' and Chinese: 设计总局; lit. 'design bureau'). In 1958, the design bureau and the construction bureau were merged to form the General Bureau of Capital Construction of the Ministry of Railways (Chinese: 铁道部基本建设总局). 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 China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group [zh] was said to construct over 1,000 bridges from 1953 to 2009.
In 1989, the Ministry of Railways formed China Railway Engineering Corporation (Chinese: 中国铁路工程总公司; 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 China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group [zh].
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 China Railway Group Limited and listed some of its shares for sale on the Hong Kong stock exchange and the Shanghai stock exchange 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, and dredging.
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, CREC was added to Ukraine's International Sponsors of War 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 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.