Xinjiang to import coking coal from Mongolia

Far western province Xinjiang is seeking to boost coking coal imports from Mongolia to meet demand from its rapidly expanding steel sector. The region plans to raise crude steel capacity from roughly 7 million tonnes per year now to more than 22 million tonnes per year by 2015 however local deposit of coking coal resources is scarce, compared with huge steam coal reserves estimated at more than 2 trillion tonnes.

In Qinhe county of Xinjiang, local authorities are pushing forward the construction of a 1 million tonnes per year coking project with necessary washing facilities by 2015. The project is located at border crossing Takeshiken which will be a major outlet of Mongolian products after a series of infrastructure upgrading complete in the next few years. This includes the construction of railway and road projects that funnel coal and ore products into factories in Xinjiang, such as Bayi Steel a unit under Baosteel.

The border crossing Takeshiken was fully opened on January 13, before which it was closed between December and April. Statistics show Xinjiang produced 45 million tonnes of coal in 2008 of which 3.9 million tonnes was coking coal with hard coking coal only accounting for 0.67million tonnes.

(Sourced from China Coal Times)

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