Belt and Road provides glowing example of growth

Stretching across Eurasia and Africa, with its huge ribbon of newly-developed infrastructure, the high-profile Belt and Road Initiative stands out as a refreshing example of growth for manufacturers and producers in China's energy-guzzling heavy industries - that are grappling with the thorny issue of overcapacity at home - analysts said.

The infrastructure-hungry nations along the route may generate enormous demand for industrial metals and energy, said Zhu Yi, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

For Asia alone, the region's infrastructure financing needs will reach an estimated $8.2 trillion or even more from 2010 to 2020, with about $4 trillion to $6 trillion in investments going to countries and regions covered by the Belt and Road strategy, according to the Asian Development Bank.