Rail splitting hammer - GIF

[desbromilow]

I can't speak on the specifics, but there IS a difference between rail grades coming out of China vs Japan. I know a couple of iron ore companies do a reciprocal deal with China where they send iron ore over, and get a discount on rail coming back. According to the Speno rail guy, that railway track doesn't last anywhere near as long as the Japanese rail other iron ore companies in the same region buy. One of the users of Japanese rail has far larger tonnages per day over the track than the ones using chinese rail.