Erdenes TT coal exports – practically back to normal www.news.mn

State owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi is one of the most important companies in Mongolia. Recently, the enterprise came back to life, as some of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic were lifted. Thus, between 1 and 12 April, it produced a total of 3.5 million tonnes of coal from its East and West Tsankh mines located in the South Gobi Province. The company has transported a total of 321 thousand of tonnes coal and exported nearly 6000 tonnes of coal to China. In other words, Erdenes TT is now operating at almost normally rates after Mongolia reopened its border with China earlier this month. The country closed its borders with China in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in mid-February.

Sales of industrial production decreased by 35 percent www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. According to the preliminary results, the gross industrial output reached MNT 3.1 trillion, in the first quarter of 2020, showing a decrease of MNT 778.3 billion (19.9%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to the decrease in mining and quarrying gross output by MNT 859.1 billion (29.8%), while manufacturing output increased by MNT 23.2 billion (3.3%), electricity, thermal energy and water supply output by MNT 57.6 billion (17.2%), respectively.

In the first quarter of 2020, the mining and quarrying gross output was decreased by MNT 859.1 billion (29.8%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to decreases in the mining of coal and lignite by MNT 600.7 billion (46.0%), extraction of crude petroleum by MNT 167.6 billion (70.4%) and mining of metal ores by MNT 91.8 billion (7.0%), respectively.

Out of the mining and quarrying gross output, 60.4 percent was comprised from the mining of metal ores, 34.9 percent was from the mining of coal and lignite, 3.5 percent was from the extraction of crude petroleum and 1.2 percent was from other mining and quarrying in the first quarter of 2020.

By the preliminary results of the first quarter of 2020, in the mining and quarrying sector, the extraction of gold was increased by 84.4 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. In the manufacturing sector, concentrated coal, lime, milk, wheat flour, productions of pure water, soft drink, juice were increased by 4.9 percent to 53.1 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. By the preliminary results of the first quarter of 2020, the production of coal briquette was increased by 5.6 times more compared to the same period of the previous year.

Moreover, in the mining and quarrying sector, extraction of flour spar, brown coal, copper concentrate, iron ore, hard coal and crude oil was decreased by 2.0 percent to 72.4 percent. In the manufacturing sector, alcoholic beverage, productions of metal foundries, combed cashmere, copper cathode, cashmere products, metal steel, meat, cement are decreased by 3.5 percent to 71.8 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

By the preliminary results of the first quarter of 2020, the sales of industrial production reached MNT 3.0 trillion, decreased by MNT 1.6 trillion (35.0%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly resulted from the decrease of MNT 1.6 trillion (48.1%) in sales of mining and quarrying and MNT 96.0 billion (9.5%) in sales of manufacturing, while the sales of electricity, thermal energy and water supply were increased by MNT 58.4 billion (17.4%).

For the total sales of industrial production, MNT 1.6 trillion (54.2%) were from export, of which the export of mining and quarrying was MNT 1.4 trillion (83.7%) and the export of manufacturing was MNT 267.2 billion (16.3%).

For the sales of mining and quarrying production, MNT 1.4 trillion (83.7%) was comprised from the export, of which 67.9 percent was from the mining of metal ores, 25.9 percent was from the mining of coal and lignite, 3.6 percent was the extraction of crude petroleum, 2.6 percent was other from mining and quarrying. 2.6 percent was other from mining and quarrying.

Source: National Statistics Office

Total COVID-19 cases in Mongolia jump to 30, with 5 recovered www.montsame.mn

At today’s 11 AM daily press briefing of the Ministry of Health, D.Nyamkhuu, Director of the National Center of Communicable Diseases (NCCD) confirmed 13 newly detected cases of COVID-19.

Russian border becomes China's frontline in fight against second virus wave www.reuters.com

SUIFENHE, China (Reuters) - China’s northeastern border with Russia has become a frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks - with more than 90% involving people coming from abroad.

Having largely stamped out domestic transmission of the disease, China has been slowly easing curbs on movement as it tries to get its economy back on track, but there are fears that a rise in imported cases could spark a second wave of COVID-19.

A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier, marking the highest daily tally since March 5.

Imported cases accounted for a record 98. Half involved Chinese nationals returning from Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, home to the city of Vladivostok, who re-entered China through border crossings in Heilongjiang province.

“Our little town here, we thought it was the safest place,” said a resident of the border city of Suifenhe, who only gave his surname as Zhu.

“Some Chinese citizens - they want to come back, but it’s not very sensible, what are you doing coming here for?”

The border is closed, except to Chinese nationals, and the land route through the city had become one of few options available for people trying to return home after Russia stopped flights to China except for those evacuating people.

Streets in Suifenhe were virtually empty on Sunday evening due to restrictions on movement and gatherings announced last week, when authorities took preventative measures similar to those imposed in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the pandemic ripping round the world first emerged late last year.

The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 82,160 as of Sunday. At the peak of the first wave of the epidemic on Feb 12 there were over 15,000 new cases, though that was a one-off spike following the deployment of new testing methods.

Though the number of daily infections across China has dropped sharply from that peak, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on March 12 because of the rise in imported cases.

Chinese cities near the Russian frontier are tightening border controls and imposing stricter quarantines in response.

Suifenhe and Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, are now mandating 28 days of quarantine as well as nucleic acid and antibody tests for all arrivals from abroad.

In Shanghai, authorities found that 60 people who arrived on Aeroflot flight SU208 from Moscow on April 10 have the coronavirus, Zheng Jin, a spokeswoman for the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a press conference on Monday.

“Imported cases are still the highest risk in Beijing in the second half of April,” Pang said, adding that nearly 8% of the 40,000 nucleic acid tests carried out in the city since April 1 had been conducted on people who had come from abroad.

China has cut the number of people crossing its borders by 90% and has tried to stop all non-essential journeys, said Liu Haitao, an immigration official, at a separate briefing.

“Our border is long, and apart from the border crossings and passages, there are a large number of mountain passes, paths, ferry crossings and small roads, and the situation is very complicated,” he said.

Residents in Suifenhe said a lot of people had left the city fearing contagion, but others put their trust in authorities’ containment measures.

“I don’t need to worry,” Zhao Wei, another Suifenhe resident, told Reuters. “If there’s a local transmission, I would, but there’s not a single one. They’re all from the border, but they’ve all been sent to quarantine.”

Czech Republic will promote its companies "doing business with Mongolia" interest www.mzv.cz/ulaanbaatar/mn

Foreign Ministry of Czech Republic just recently approved "Czech Business Support" (PROPEA) pilot project in Mongolia in order to specifically promote Czech exporters and investors interest in Mongolian market.

South Korean company to provide database solution to Mobicom www.news.mn

South Korea’s Altibase has signed a contract with MobiCom in order to provide its database solutions to the Mongolian telecommunications giant. The contract was signed in March 2020 with MobiCom in order to adopt Altibase’s 7.0 version for its mobile platform for storing infrequently used data. MobiCom has chosen Altibase because it avoids the need to purchase separate data-retrieval solutions. Altibase offers a high performance, unique database that simply eliminates the common issues associated with commercial retrieval solutions.

Parliament ratifies USD 12 million financing from International Development Association www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On April 10, Parliament discussed and backed a bill on ratifying a financing agreement between Mongolia and International Development Association (IDO), submitted by the cabinet.

17th imported Covid-19 case recorded in Mongolia www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At today’s daily briefing of the Ministry of Health, Director of the National Center of Communicable Diseases (NCCD) D.Nyamkhuu reported that one of the 20 people who were quarantined at NCCD on April 12, after evacuation from Russia, tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Mongolia to 17.

Mongolia's c.bank cuts benchmark interest rate to 9% from 10% www.reuters.com

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, April 13 (Reuters) - Mongolia’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate to 9% from 10% and extended consumer loans by 12 months amid an uncertain environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen 17 cases in the country so far.

Gold program to be realized www.zgm.mn

Officials are preparing to implement the Gold national program following the cabinet’s decision to adopt a bill on providing cheap loans for gold miners and making up required financing resources from external and internal markets. It aims to include specific legal regulations in the law of the central bank. Additionally, the negotiation with Russian banks to implement the program is ongoing with a positive expectation. Implementing the gold program and providing additional funding to gold mining companies will increase the gold reserves and stabilize the tugrik. As of March, the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) purchased a total of 5.3 tons of precious metal. Of these, 3.6 tons were gold and 1.7 tons were silver. BoM purchased the gold at an average price of MNT 150,112 per gram. This is a sharp increase compared to the same period of the previous year. As the central bank reported in February, foreign exchange reserves of Mongolia stands at USD 4.3 billion, growing 21 percent from a year ago.