CompanyGraph
Daqin Railway Co., Ltd.
601006 · SSE · China
Carries coal from China's largest coal basin in Shanxi to Qinhuangdao port along the only rail corridor that can handle the volume.
Daqin Railway moves thermal coal from the Datong basin in Shanxi — China's largest coal-producing region — 653 kilometres east to Qinhuangdao port, where it transfers onto ships and coastal barges headed for power plants in Guangdong and Jiangsu. The entire corridor is built around 20,000-tonne unit trains, and both the loading terminals at Datong and the unloading berths at Qinhuangdao were constructed specifically for that consist size, so the mines, the railway, and the port have all locked their infrastructure to each other — rebuilding any one part of the chain without the others would be enormously expensive. Because the National Development and Reform Commission fixes the per-tonne-kilometre rate, the company cannot charge more when demand rises; the only way to earn more is to move more tonnes, which means the business lives entirely on throughput. That dependence on volume is also the central vulnerability: if Beijing administratively curtails how much Shanxi thermal coal is permitted to move — whether through carbon-neutrality targets or air quality rules around Beijing and Tianjin — the loading terminals, trains, and port berths all sit idle, because policy can turn off the feedstock without touching the railway itself.
How does this company make money?
The company charges a fee for every tonne of coal it carries from Shanxi to Qinhuangdao port. The rate per tonne per kilometre is set by China's National Development and Reform Commission based on distance and coal type — the company cannot negotiate it up. That means the only way to earn more is to move more coal.
What makes this company hard to replace?
Coal mines have already built their own loading facilities to match this railway's 20,000-tonne trains — rebuilding them for a different system would cost enormous time and money. Power plants have coal supply contracts specifically tied to deliveries through Qinhuangdao port. Switching would mean rebuilding loading infrastructure on the mine side and renegotiating the entire supply chain from scratch.
What limits this company?
Single-track sections along the corridor and the fixed capacity of the loading terminals at Datong and the unloading berths at Qinhuangdao put a hard ceiling on how many tonnes can move each day. Because everything — the terminals, the berths, the trains — was built to the exact size of the 20,000-tonne consist, you cannot change one part without rebuilding the other end of the chain.
What does this company depend on?
The company cannot run without Shanxi thermal coal mines to fill the trains, Qinhuangdao port berth capacity to receive them, State Grid power transmission lines to keep the electrified railway running, Ministry of Railways dispatching authority to coordinate traffic, and the specialized 20,000-tonne unit train rolling stock itself.
Who depends on this company?
Coastal power plants in Guangdong and Jiangsu would face coal shortages that could destabilize the electricity grid. Qinhuangdao port would lose its main source of cargo, leaving berths underused. Shanxi coal mines would have no primary route out of the basin, forcing production slowdowns. Seaborne thermal coal exports from northern China would be sharply reduced.
How does this company scale?
Adding more unit trains or running trains more frequently is relatively cheap because the track and centralized control system already exist. What does not scale easily is the mainline corridor itself — there is only one, and it cannot be duplicated — and the coal-handling facilities at Qinhuangdao, which depend on specific geographic positioning that cannot simply be reproduced elsewhere.
What external forces can significantly affect this company?
China's goal of carbon neutrality by 2060 could lead the government to administratively reduce how much thermal coal is allowed to move through the corridor. Beijing-Tianjin air quality rules can restrict Shanxi coal transport permissions even before any national policy takes full effect. Internationally, countries moving away from coal imports could shrink demand for the seaborne exports that leave Qinhuangdao.
Where is this company structurally vulnerable?
If the Chinese government curtails the volume of Shanxi thermal coal that is allowed to move — through its carbon-neutrality policy or Beijing-Tianjin air quality regulations — the trains stop carrying enough coal to fill the loading terminals and port berths. The infrastructure stays standing but earns nothing, because the one thing it was built to carry has been administratively reduced.