New Chinese port for domestic coal from Inner Mongolia

China's northern Inner Mongolia province will soon have an open access to ship its coal from a port in its neighboring province to fuel-thirsty customers in eastern and southern regions. A port terminal to be built in Huludao, Liaoning Province, will support an annual throughput of 50 Mt of coal when the first phase of the project becomes operational by 2012, Zhao Rongqing, the chief of port affairs in Huludao City, told Xinhua. The annual throughput will be eventually expanded to 230 Mt.

A 300 km railway will be built to link the port directly with Xilingol, a major coal production base in Inner Mongolia.

Inner Mongolia is China's coal heartland. Its verified coal deposit of 732 Bt is much greater than the 250 Bt in Shanxi Province, which is currently China's biggest producer.