Paving the way for Chinese infrastructure boom
Shell Bitumen complete the resurfacing of 70km Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport expressway
SHELL Bitumen have completed the resurfacing of Lanzhou’s airport expressway, connecting Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport to the city centre, almost 70km away.
The newly built expressway was formally opened on 2 July 2015, following a successful on-site inspection by the Gansu Expressway Bureau, as well as road bureau directors from 14 cities in Gansu province and engineering experts.
The project is part of China’s US$79.8 billion infrastructure plan for Gansu province to facilitate trade and people exchanges between China and Central Asia, as part of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative in launched in 2013.
The initiative will see a rise in demand for high-quality bitumen to pave thousands of kilometres of highways and high-speed rail links. The total transport infrastructure investment in the initiative is estimated to hit US$5 trillion in the next five years.
Shell are one of largest international bitumen suppliers in China, and the only international oil company with a dedicated bitumen technical service team in the country. The company imports most of its high-quality bitumen supplies for China from its plant in Pulau Bukom, Singapore.
However, as well as importing bitumen to China, Shell also run one of their three bitumen-dedicated Regional Solution Centres in Beijing, and operate three bitumen manufacturing plants and two joint-venture plants in strategic regions throughout China, producing high-quality polymer-modified bitumen (PMB) products.
‘We are looking to expand our business in China, widening our business reach into provinces in China’s north-west and south-west regions,’ said Jian Ping Shen, general manager of Shell Bitumen China.
Shell Bitumen market both conventional bitumen and specialized bitumen products to customers in China, including Shell Cariphalte, their PMB solution for use in heavy-duty applications such as expressways and airport runways.
The company also markets a range of emulsions used in road paving, as well other asphalt-based products for use in various industrial applications. Shell Bitufresh, a specially formulated bitumen additive designed to neutralize bitumen odour, is also offered in China.
Shell Bitumen say they have supplied their expertise in bitumen technology to some of China’s most important infrastructure projects, including the 302km Guangdong Guangle Expressway and Beijing’s Changan Avenue’s East section and the city’s second ring road.
The company also supplied bitumen for the roads surrounding the Beijing Olympic Park and the China Pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, and played a key role during the construction of the Beijing–Shanghai, Harbin–Dalian, Beijing–Shijiazhuang and Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong high-speed railway projects.
