China's railway ministry is to investigate equipment produced by a German company after media reports that its products had failed tests.

However, Halfen Group's Chinese branch told Shanghai Daily Wednesday that the company provided quality products for China's high-speed railways and it had not received any complaints about poor quality.

The People's Daily website reported Wednesday that Halfen's cast-in channels, used to support equipment such as wires, signals and electrical devices, fell short of quality standards.

Earlier this month, Century Weekly magazine raised doubts over whether the products were imported from Germany, as the company claimed, or were made in local factories.

Both media organizations cited tip-offs from unnamed insiders.

The website said tests by China's steel material quality testing center and another two institutes showed that the channels failed strength and fire-resistance tests.

People.com.cn said it acquired channels from two sections of the under-contruction Shanghai-Kunming railway line and sent them for testing.

Two pictures on the website showed the channels marked with the Halfen name. "There is no so-called high quality or low quality, there is only one quality standard for Halfen that we have in Europe and in China as well," said Stanislas de Ferrieres, general manager with Halfen (Beijing) Construction Accessories Distribution Co Ltd.

He said the company had documentation to prove the products were from Germany. However, he did not produce it Wednesday.

He said he had visited a section on the Shanghai-Kunming line in central China before the media reports and "no problems were found there."

However, salespeople with the company hinted that some products might have been replaced by local products but still marked as Halfen.

Stanislas de Ferrieres said it was questionable whether the channels mentioned in the media reports were actually made by Halfen.

The company said earlier that Halfen channels "meet all the technical specifications from China's Ministry of Railways."

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