Recently, the Mongolian government held a meeting and decided to start the construction of the third cross-border railway connecting China and Mongolia, the Zombayin-Hangji Railway. According to the Mongolian plan, the railway has a total length of 269 kilometers, two stations and four crossings. Construction will start on March 10, 2022, and it will be put into use on October 10, 2022. Mongolian Prime Minister Luo Oyun Erden said: "The construction of this railway will open up Mongolia's second export channel."

For now, there is only one China-Mongolia cross-border railway, namely the Zamyn-Uud-Erlian railway; the second Gashunsuhaitu-Ganqimaodu railway has basically been completed and is scheduled to open in July 2022. . However, judging from the current export situation of Mongolian minerals, it largely depends on the Gashunsuhaitu-Ganqimaodu port. As the Mongolian Prime Minister said in his 2022 New Year's message, 2021 will make us more aware of the bitter fact that Mongolia's economy only depends on mining, the national finance only depends on coal, fuel depends on one country, and imports depend on only one port. Obviously, Mongolia is committed to the construction of the Zumbayin-Hangji Railway, which is to open the second export gate of Mongolia.

The reason for this is because the opening of the Zombayin-Hangji Railway will greatly enhance the export capacity of the Hangji (Mandula) port, the second largest mineral product export port in Mongolia, on the one hand; The 1,722-kilometer transportation route from Darkhan and Selenga areas to Zamyn-Uud-Eren-Jining-Hohhot-Baotou will be changed to Shayinshanda-Zongbayin-Hangji-Mandula-Baotou 1404 km. Therefore, the iron ore and coal transportation distance will be shortened by 318 kilometers, and the transportation cost will be reduced by 4-8 US dollars. It can be said that the construction of this railway can not only reduce the transportation cost of raw materials and goods, but also is a construction project that is both environmentally friendly and highly economical.

The main cargo transported by the Zumbayin-Hangji railway will be iron ore, along with a certain amount of other raw materials and products. In addition, 2 to 4 million tons of coking coal and 3 to 5,000 tons of copper concentrate will be exported each year from East Gobi Province, which has proven reserves of about 150 million tons of coal.

In addition, the newly built Zumbayin-Hangji Railway is also capable of transporting 1-6 million tons of oil and 1 million tons of timber from Russia to Baotou, China, 1.5 million tons of goods exported through Hangji Port, Ulaanbaatar The railway network transports 1 million tons of goods to Baotou and Hohhot, and 1 million to 2 million tons of construction materials, metal structures, petroleum products, machinery and equipment, heavy machinery and other materials from Baotou to Zongbayan.

Relevant officials of Mongolia said that the opening of the Zombayin-Hangji railway will not only be another export for Mongolia's mineral resources to open up foreign markets, but also bring more economic contributions to regional development.Editor/Ma Xue