Haoji railway, China’s longest heavy-haul coal railway spanning 1,814.5km from northern to central and eastern areas, is scheduled to go into operation on September 24, reported Jiangnan City Daily based in the eastern province of Jiangxi.
The railway, which starts from Haolebaoji of Inner Mongolia to Ji’an of Jiangxi province, will start operation one week earlier than original goal of October 1, thanks to workers’ strenuous efforts, said the report.
Upon operation, Haoji rail line is expected to deliver coal from the main production base of Inner Mongolia across Shaanxi, Shanxi to central provinces like Hubei and Hunan.
The rail artery has a designed transport capacity of 200 million tonnes per annum.
Market sources said rail authorities set a fixed freight rate of 0.2 yuan/t.km for Haoji railway for shipment in the fourth quarter this year, which will translate to 210 yuan/t, 285 yuan/t and 325 yuan/t for coal delivery to Denghu, North Jingmen and Jiangling in Hubei province from North Jingbian in Shaanxi province.
The new rail line will help move more coal from major production centers in the north (Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Shanxi) to central and eastern consumption areas (Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi), part of the government efforts to boost rail capacity and meet rising shipment demand.
As the first heavy-haul coal railway in China, Daqin (Datong of Shanxi-Qinhuangdao of Hebei) line came on stream on December 21, 1992. It has a length of 653km.
In 2018, a total 451 million tonnes of coal was transported through Daqin line, bringing the accumulated volumes to 6 billion tonnes since commissioning.
Source: SXCoal.com
