The line was built at the beginning of the 21st century as the southern part of a rail corridor called the Luozhan railway running from Luoyang to Zhanjiang.

Yiyang–Zhanjiang railway was built as part of the Luozhan rail corridor, which runs through four provinces and one autonomous region—Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong—and is designed to facilitate the shipment of goods from the Chinese interior to the Port of Zhanjiang.

[3][4][5] From Yulin, the Luozhan line, as originally planned, follows the pre-existing Litang–Zhanjiang railway to Zhanjiang, in southwestern Guangdong Province.

Subsequently a more direct route was built to Zhanjiang in eastern Guangxi via Cenxi, just north of Yulin, and Maoming.

From Cenxi, a 151.83 km (94 mi) single-track electrified section to Maoming in neighboring Guangdong via Xinyi and Gaozhou opened on January 3, 2011.