With its siren wailing, a ship carrying of 5,060 tons of heavy rails recently eased out of Yingkou port in Liaoning province, the first move in its long journey to Australia.

It marked the first time domestic steel giant Ansteel exported its heavy rails in bulk to a developed country.

Part of a 10,000-ton contract, each of the 25-meter-long rails were tailor-made for a railway linking the tiny town of Morawa in Western Australia to a mine 83 kilometers away.

"Exporting to Australia not only boosts the engineering level of our company's heavy rail production, but also helps promote the Ansteel brand and develop the international market," said Zhang Xiaogang, general manager of the Anshan-based company.

With its technological advantages and cost efficiency, Ansteel won the bid amid competition from developed countries in 2009.

Its previous exports mainly went to developing countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

The breakthrough overseas has in turn helped Ansteel secure more domestic orders for rapid transit railways across the country.

Its rails are now used in lines linking Wuhan to Guangzhou, Zhengzhou to Xi'an, Beijing to Tianjin, Wenzhou to Fuzhou, Jiaozhou to Jinan and Harbin to Dalian.

The Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed line has 50,000 tons of rail from Ansteel. It began operation in late October.

By Wu Yong and Liu Ce

(China Daily 11/30/2010 page18)