Why is the Northeast not suitable for building coal chemical industries?

The coal resources in the Northeast are indeed abundant, but that was decades ago. In the early days of the founding of the country, coal mining was mainly concentrated in the Northeast and North China. Due to the limitations of technology at that time, and also to ensure steel production, almost all of the easily accessible open-pit mines in the Northeast were exhausted. Although there is still some coal in the coal mines there today, mining it requires the use of inclined shafts or vertical shafts, with drilling down to depths of 500 meters. Moreover, the coal seams are thin, which increases the construction costs before mining begins. Additionally, the state-owned coal mines have overly complex organizational structures, resulting in high mining costs. As a result, the cost of the coal mined is high, leaving little profit margin for coal chemical industries, and thus no competitive advantage. If coal from Inner Mongolia is transported, it has to be done by land, which raises transportation costs. Therefore, despite having abundant water resources, the Northeast is not suitable for coal chemical industry development.

Cost is one aspect; Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia mainly have surface-mined coal. These regions offer investment incentives in exchange for resources, something that the other three provinces cannot do. The environmental pressure there is lower. In coal chemical production, half of the coal used is raw material coal while the other half is fuel coal, and the demand for it is high

Where is the environmental pressure low?

Inner Mongolia can be divided into Eastern Mongolia and Western Mongolia. Western Mongolia has a higher concentration of coal chemical industries, while Hulunbuir, Xingan League, Tongliao, and Chifeng in Eastern Mongolia are located in the northeastern region, where the development of coal chemical industries is slow. The specific reasons for this are: first, the quality of coal is poor; second, the local economies are underdeveloped, with insufficient infrastructure

In the Northeast, the advantage related to coal no longer exists; all the coal that was easy to extract has already been mined out. So how can coal chemical industry be developed there?

It’s the same coal mining, the same deep mines, and the same calorific value – so why is the price of coal so high in the Northeast while it’s so low in Inner Mongolia?

Cost is one aspect; Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia mainly have surface-mined coal. These regions offer investment incentives in exchange for resources, something that the other three provinces cannot do. The environmental pressure there is lower. In coal chemical production, half of the coal used is raw material coal while the other half is fuel coal, and the demand for it is high

Try transporting coal from Inner Mongolia to the Northeast! This is caused by the local supply and demand situation. In addition to its calorific value, coal has other properties; for example, even with the same calorific value, some coals can be used for coking, while others are only suitable for gasification, or even only for burning as semi-coke.

Personally, I think the quality of coal in the Northeast is indeed poor, and its price is high. This is mainly due to underdeveloped local infrastructure as well as a lack of supportive policies, which has prevented the development of coal-based chemical industries there, as well as virtually all other industrial sectors.

The poster can change the title to, Why the Northeast is not suitable for all industries. :P