An aerial drone photo shows a container train carrying 1,000 tons of cassava starch bound for Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, departing from the Vientiane South Station on the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, capital of Laos, November 29, 2025. Photo: Xinhua

Large-scale railway maintenance machine fleet for export by China to Thailand and Uzbekistan successfully rolled off the production line and passed inspection in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province on Monday, CCTV News reported.

The delivery marks the first time that a complete set of large-scale railway maintenance machines has been exported to Thailand by a Chinese rolling-stock manufacturer.

According to CCTV News, the equipment to be exported to Thailand consists of four machines: a mainline tamping machine, a turnout tamping machine, a dynamic stabilizing machine, and a ballast distributing car. These machines will be primarily used for precise correction, structural shaping, and strength reinforcement of railway lines, and they are capable of significantly improving the efficiency and quality of railway maintenance work.

They serve as a crucial guarantee for maintaining high safety and smoothness on railways, particularly high-speed and heavy-haul lines, the report noted.

Passing inspection on the same day, and tailored specifically for Uzbekistan, will be nine units of the three-platform overhead line maintenance vehicles. The equipment is mainly used for the daily inspection and maintenance of railway electrification lines and their overhead facilities.

The shipment represents the largest batch of large-scale railway maintenance machinery exported from China to Uzbekistan, the CCTV News report said.

Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that the first export shipments to the two countries are milestone events.

"This is a fresh step under which partner countries tap Chinese technologies and railway expertise to power up their infrastructure upgrades and pursue sustainable development, paving the way for closer cooperation in more areas to enhance regional connectivity," Xu said.

The exports of railway equipment come as infrastructure and trade between China, ASEAN and Central Asian countries gain speed, with the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway project in progress and the China-Europe freight trains setting new records.

China-Europe freight trains have made a cumulative 120,000 trips and transported goods with a total value exceeding $490 billion, China State Railway Group Co said on Friday.

Toward Southeast Asia, the China-Laos Railway is making fresh progress in driving regional trade and economic growth with its connectivity advantage. 

According to the Xinhua News Agency, a fully loaded train carrying 1,000 tons of cassava starch departed from Vientiane via the China-Laos Railway on Saturday, marking the country's first full-train cassava starch export to China.

According to the General Administration of Customs of China, trade in agricultural and food products between China and ASEAN has yielded remarkable results. In the first 10 months of this year, bilateral trade in agricultural and food products reached $51.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent.