The 7th “Coal Mongolia” conference and exhibition opened at  Ulaanbaatar’s Shangri-La Hotel, on 7th of September. The primary objectives of the last six conferences have been to attract international investment into the Mongolian coal sector, to introduce the most advanced technologies and to strengthen the competitiveness of the Mongolian coal sector in the Asian market.

Currently, Mongolian coal export capacity has reached about 50 million tonnes but actual export is around half of full capacity. Thus, new objectives of ‘Coal Mongolia’ conference have been introduced to improve the structure and conformity of the coal export, trade, transportation, logistics and customs as well as to increase the efficiency of foreign and domestic investments.

During the Coal Mongolia 2017 conference, the Mongolian Coal Association will co-organise the ‘Mongolia-China Coal Business Forum’, which has the key objectives of enhancing coal industry cooperation and supporting the coal trade between the two neighbours.

Due to the fact that China has banned all coal imports from North Korea combined with the effect of Cyclone Debbie in Australia, the global coking coal market is facing a significant supply shortage, which has resulted in a sharp increase in coking coal prices. This may be bad news for the miners of N.Korea and Australia, however, it represents a great opportunity for Mongolia to revive its coal sector and re-activate coal exports.