[UK grid to spend £20.9bn to achieve net zero emissions] The UK power network operator will have a £20.9bn budget to expand the grid to connect millions of electric vehicles, smart systems and small renewable energy projects over the next five years. The budget will be used for service, maintenance, upgrades and repairs by six UK distribution network companies from April 2023, and has been approved by regulator Ofgem. The plan, which includes tree-cutting, flood protection and other energy security measures, aims to improve the resilience of the UK's 800,000km of overhead and underground transmission lines to deal with more severe weather events in the future. Editor/Xing Wentao

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• 2026.04.03 16:07
• [The domestically produced largest diameter hard rock TBM is offline]
• On April 3, 2026, the domestically developed maximum diameter 13.2-meter hard rock TBM by CCCC Tianhe started construction in Changshu. The machine is equipped with 7600 domestically produced rare earth special steel main bearings developed by the Institute of Metals, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a rated life of over 15000 hours and performance exceeding imports. This move marks China Communications Construction Corporation's first achievement of 100% localization of core components for ultra large diameter tunneling machines, completely bridging the last mile of national production of major underground engineering equipment in China.Editor/Cheng Liting

• 2026.04.03 15:53
• [China Kazakhstan's $125 million large order landed]
• At the Export to China SCO Choice Forum, Kazakh companies signed a $125 million agricultural export agreement with Chinese partners. Changsha Kaliev, the Minister of Trade of Kazakhstan, led a delegation to visit Shandong to deepen industrial and logistics cooperation. As the largest trading partner, the bilateral trade volume between China and Kazakhstan is expected to increase from 41 billion US dollars in 2023 to 48.7 billion US dollars in 2025, with Shandong's trade volume reaching 2.2 billion US dollars. Both sides are shifting from scale expansion to quality and efficiency improvement, with a focus on promoting the export of high value-added, non resource, and green technology products to ensure supply chain stability.Editor/Cheng Liting