On the morning of September 21, 2026, in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, the whistle sounded as four Liberation brand heavy trucks slowly drove out of the Zhongtie Shanqiao factory area and headed towards Qingdao Port. The 111 sets of high-speed turnouts loaded on the train have been pre assembled in the factory, and the turnouts and sleepers are packaged as a whole. They will soon be sailing on the sea for more than two months, laying the extension line of Africa's first high-speed railway - the Ganeitra to Marrakesh high-speed railway in Morocco.

The last batch departs

This batch of goods marks the end of a large order. There are a total of 575 sets of switches on the Gaima High Railway, which will be transported in four batches. Zhang Xin, the project manager of China Railway Shanqiao Morocco Gaima High speed Railway, introduced that the 111 sets to be shipped this time are the last batch, and all the Gaima High speed Railway turnout projects undertaken so far have been shipped. The first batch of 80 sets of turnouts were shipped in November 2025 and were laid on site locally in April of this year.

The other end of the line is also bustling with activity. The Gaima high-speed railway has a total length of 430 kilometers and a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, connecting major cities such as the capital city of Rabat and the economic center of Casablanca. It is an important part of the north-south corridor in Morocco and mainly serves the transportation needs of the 2030 World Cup. It is expected to be opened by the end of 2029. In 2018, the Tangier to Ganitra high-speed railway, which was built with the participation of Chinese enterprises, opened, making Morocco the first country in Africa to have a high-speed railway. Now, this extension line will continue to expand the high-speed railway network southward.

From selling products to delivering solutions

The real change is not in quantity, but in method. In the past, the export of turnouts was mostly done by packing individual parts and assembling them on site. This time, the single product export model has been broken, and the full chain system integration output of process, manufacturing technology, quality control, and localized procurement has been achieved. It has become the benchmark project for China's high-speed turnouts to fully land in Africa for the first time. This is also the project with the largest single contract amount won by a Chinese turnout enterprise overseas.

At the same time, for the first time, the project adopts the integrated assembly and shipping of turnouts and sleepers. The products are pre assembled and precision verified in the domestic factory area. After arriving in Morocco, they can be laid with simple debugging, increasing assembly efficiency by 30% and shortening construction period by 15%. The quality of on-site laying is also more guaranteed.

The World Road of a Century Old Factory

The foundation supporting this plan is the manufacturing end. Zhongtie Shanqiao has put into use the largest and most advanced pure steel frog production line in China, which has improved the tensile strength of steel and produced products with high purity, high density, and high stability; The entire track components have achieved CNC integration and standardized processing, adapting to the strict requirements of high-speed railway lines for high smoothness and comfort. The AI automated detection system for turnouts independently developed by the enterprise has high accuracy and fast efficiency, adding another lock to export quality.

Turnouts are the only steering wheel that can change the direction of trains, and they are also the most technologically integrated core equipment in high-speed rail lines. The Moroccan railway equipment market has long been dominated by European companies, and there has never been a Chinese turnout enterprise entering before. Since the production of China's first set of railway turnouts in 1912, China Railway Shanqiao has always led the industry direction; From the Jakarta Bandung high-speed railway, the Hungary Serbia railway to the Morocco high-speed railway, China's railway turnout standards are accelerating towards the world. Cao Dongwei, General Manager of China Railway Shanqiao, stated that the demonstration effect of the Gaima high-speed railway is expected to enable more countries' railways to use Chinese made steering wheels.Editor/Yang Meiling