Most recently, Mongolia is really bad, all kinds of news look, a word: difficult. where is it difficult? 15.6 million square kilometers of land, bigger than France, Germany, Spain combined, underground buried countless copper mines, coal mines, rare earth, logically guarding this gold and silver mountain, the day should not be bad.
The most intuitive is the "unable to carry out" trouble, last year someone saw in the Ganga Mao port on their own eyes, hundreds of coal trucks grow dragons on the Gobi beach, black smoke smoked the midday sun as ash. Mongolian driver sitting on the wheel, said to wait for four days and three nights to drive a hundred meters, daily light passing costs will have to cost a few thousand pieces, coal in the car was blowed by the wind a layer, maintenance costs more than earned.
This is not an exception. As the highway port with the largest cargo volume between China and Mongolia, Ganqimaodu's cargo volume reached 14.718 million tons from January to May. However, when customs clearance was not optimized in previous years, it took a vehicle just to inspect. It took most of a day. The 3 million tons of copper ore from the Tawen Tolgoi mine were piled up in the warehouse, and the coal could only be sold at a discount of 20% lower than the international price, just to quickly exchange some cash flow.
Why is this blocked?The roots are still too short of roads. The China-Mongolian border is 4700 kilometers long, but there is only one railway port, 13 highway ports, and 90% of the export of mining products depends on the highway. More troubling is the Mongolian railway distance is different from China, even if there are minerals transported to the border, you have to roll containers to change trains, single batches of goods have more than 72 hours, and logistics costs have risen by 30%.
It will not be until May 2025 that the second cross-border railway between China and Mongolia will start. This railway from Ganqimaodu to Gashun Suhaitu will not be opened to traffic until 2027. Previously, Mongolia exported 83 million tons of coal every year, relying entirely on roads Hard to carry, overloaded trucks rolled the border road into potholes, and maintenance costs cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Forget it if you can't ship it out, even if you ship it out, you won't make much money. 91.3% of Mongolia's exports depend on China. Among the US $14.4 billion in exports to China in 2024, mineral products will account for the absolute majority, which is equivalent to holding the economic lifeline in the hands of others. If the Chinese market adjusts demand slightly, Mongolia's ore prices will have to plunge accordingly. Last year, 52 million tons more coal were sold, but revenue did not increase much. This is because transportation costs are too high and bargaining power is in the hands of buyers.
What's even more frustrating is that in order to attract investment, in the early years, we also engaged in "rejuvenating the country with resources". As a result, the policy changed day by day and scared away foreign capital, and we didn't have the technology to dig deep mines, so we could only watch high-quality veins lying underground. To make matters worse, debt and ecology are blocked at both ends. In 2017, Mongolia relied on the IMF's $5.5 billion aid to not go bankrupt. The price was to cut spending, increase taxes, and open 21% of the mining industry to the outside world.
Now the foreign exchange reserves are also $5 billion, even the railway repair money has to rely on the help of China, can mine more quickly, the grasslands are destroyed more severely. The dust of road transportation has degraded the surrounding grasslands, shepherds of cattle can not eat grass, mines and shepherds conflict can occur dozens each year, on the other hand, the miners to eat, on the other hand, the shepherds to live, the government stuck in the middle is difficult.
It was not until the recent news of railway construction that people saw some hope. This railway with an annual capacity of 30 million tons can carry 60% of Mongolia's coal exports. After it is opened to traffic, it can earn an additional US $1.5 billion every year, which is equivalent to an increase of 30% in foreign exchange reserves.
In 15 minutes, you can complete the mineral detection, the customs efficiency increased by 40%, but these changes have to be and so on.The Mongolian country, like keeping the gold bowl but lacking chopsticks, watching the copper mine rust in the warehouse, listening to the driver's whisper, can only expect the railroad to start early, so that the underground baby really becomes food money.
In the end, the difficulty of Mongolia is the difficulty of keeping resources but not opening the way out. Without decent transportation channels, Phnom Penh becomes waste; relying on the single market, making money to look at the face of others; ecology and development are contradictory, the interests ahead and long-term development can not open the wrist. This is a lack of path, clearly a lack of ways to turn resources into wealth.
The most intuitive is the "unable to carry out" trouble, last year someone saw in the Ganga Mao port on their own eyes, hundreds of coal trucks grow dragons on the Gobi beach, black smoke smoked the midday sun as ash. Mongolian driver sitting on the wheel, said to wait for four days and three nights to drive a hundred meters, daily light passing costs will have to cost a few thousand pieces, coal in the car was blowed by the wind a layer, maintenance costs more than earned.
This is not an exception. As the highway port with the largest cargo volume between China and Mongolia, Ganqimaodu's cargo volume reached 14.718 million tons from January to May. However, when customs clearance was not optimized in previous years, it took a vehicle just to inspect. It took most of a day. The 3 million tons of copper ore from the Tawen Tolgoi mine were piled up in the warehouse, and the coal could only be sold at a discount of 20% lower than the international price, just to quickly exchange some cash flow.
Why is this blocked?The roots are still too short of roads. The China-Mongolian border is 4700 kilometers long, but there is only one railway port, 13 highway ports, and 90% of the export of mining products depends on the highway. More troubling is the Mongolian railway distance is different from China, even if there are minerals transported to the border, you have to roll containers to change trains, single batches of goods have more than 72 hours, and logistics costs have risen by 30%.
It will not be until May 2025 that the second cross-border railway between China and Mongolia will start. This railway from Ganqimaodu to Gashun Suhaitu will not be opened to traffic until 2027. Previously, Mongolia exported 83 million tons of coal every year, relying entirely on roads Hard to carry, overloaded trucks rolled the border road into potholes, and maintenance costs cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Forget it if you can't ship it out, even if you ship it out, you won't make much money. 91.3% of Mongolia's exports depend on China. Among the US $14.4 billion in exports to China in 2024, mineral products will account for the absolute majority, which is equivalent to holding the economic lifeline in the hands of others. If the Chinese market adjusts demand slightly, Mongolia's ore prices will have to plunge accordingly. Last year, 52 million tons more coal were sold, but revenue did not increase much. This is because transportation costs are too high and bargaining power is in the hands of buyers.
What's even more frustrating is that in order to attract investment, in the early years, we also engaged in "rejuvenating the country with resources". As a result, the policy changed day by day and scared away foreign capital, and we didn't have the technology to dig deep mines, so we could only watch high-quality veins lying underground. To make matters worse, debt and ecology are blocked at both ends. In 2017, Mongolia relied on the IMF's $5.5 billion aid to not go bankrupt. The price was to cut spending, increase taxes, and open 21% of the mining industry to the outside world.
Now the foreign exchange reserves are also $5 billion, even the railway repair money has to rely on the help of China, can mine more quickly, the grasslands are destroyed more severely. The dust of road transportation has degraded the surrounding grasslands, shepherds of cattle can not eat grass, mines and shepherds conflict can occur dozens each year, on the other hand, the miners to eat, on the other hand, the shepherds to live, the government stuck in the middle is difficult.
It was not until the recent news of railway construction that people saw some hope. This railway with an annual capacity of 30 million tons can carry 60% of Mongolia's coal exports. After it is opened to traffic, it can earn an additional US $1.5 billion every year, which is equivalent to an increase of 30% in foreign exchange reserves.
In 15 minutes, you can complete the mineral detection, the customs efficiency increased by 40%, but these changes have to be and so on.The Mongolian country, like keeping the gold bowl but lacking chopsticks, watching the copper mine rust in the warehouse, listening to the driver's whisper, can only expect the railroad to start early, so that the underground baby really becomes food money.
In the end, the difficulty of Mongolia is the difficulty of keeping resources but not opening the way out. Without decent transportation channels, Phnom Penh becomes waste; relying on the single market, making money to look at the face of others; ecology and development are contradictory, the interests ahead and long-term development can not open the wrist. This is a lack of path, clearly a lack of ways to turn resources into wealth.