Road transportation along Mongolia's Tavantolgoi-Manlai-Khangi corridor is suspended beginning from 19:00 on October 27, impacting shipments on a major route for Mongolian coal exports to China, Mysteel learnt from a notice issued by Takhilt Khairkhan Trans LLC, concessionaire and operator of the 477-kilometre corridor.
The suspension follows prolonged concerns over road conditions and maintenance. In an August 20 letter, Mongolia's Ministry of Road and Transport said a joint inspection conducted in June had identified severe damage along approximately 250 km of the concession road in South Gobi province. By October 15, however, rectification work on the section of road still failed to meet the ministry's requirements. The road has therefore been ordered closed till the repairs are completed, according to Mysteel's survey.

Abundant coal deposits make Tavantolgoi the most important coal production hub in Mongolia, especially of premium quality coking coal.  For example, Mongolian 5# primary coking coal, widely used in China, is mainly produced in the region. On the other side of the corridor, the Khangi border crossing leads to China's Mandula border port, one of the major coal transport conduits to North China's Inner Mongolia, Mysteel Global notes.

According to Mysteel's tracking at the border port, over January-September this year China imported 12.76 million tonnes of Mongolian coal through Mandula, more than triple the volume cleared at the Customs post during the same period last year.

Coal shipments on the route, however, do not rely exclusively on the road. Since 2024, Mongolian Railway has been transporting coal traded by Erdenes Tavantolgoi on the The Mongolian Stock Exchange to the Mandula border port through a combined rail-road system, Mongolian state news agency Montsame reported in March. On October 28, shipments between the two border crossings were also continuing, according to market sources.

The impact of the road closure on flows of Mongolian 5# primary coking coal into China, however, is expected to be limited, as the coal type is mainly transported from Tavantolgoi via another route to China's Ganqimaodu border port, the largest among the coal conduits in Inner Mongolia west of the Mandula port, Mysteel Global notes.

So far this month, the average number of coal trucks from Mongolia via Mandula into China reached around 500 per day, of which fewer than 60 carried Mongolian 5# raw coal, Mysteel's tracking showed. (The others mostly carried thermal coal.) Transportation on the Ganqimaodu route remains smooth, handling over 710 trucks/day on average so far this month.

Written by Adrian Zhou, zhouwenhaoa@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com

Published Date:2026-10-29