CRE to build railway in Western Australia

China Railway Engineering will build and finance a railway for a proposed US$1.34 billion iron ore mine development in Western Australia, Perth-based Fortescue Metals Group said. It declined to put a value on the railway component of the project but said it had already signed at least two Chinese steel makers as customers for the mine. Fortescue did not identify the names of the companies, but the move puts the company in head to head competition with homegrown global iron ore giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group. Both have been growing off the back of soaring demand for steel in China.