Modernization of the industrial complex from the perspective of the concept of production cycle (A case study of Kuznetsk coal use)

Abstract

An economic-geographical analysis is made of the main current problems with the development of Kuzbass implying a strict dependence of the economy on world prices and demand for coal, a high transportation component in the price of Kuznetsk coal, and on the irrational structure of the region’s coal sector. From the perspective of the market economy, N. N. Kolosovskii’s concept of energy-production cycles is rethought, the notion of the “coal production cycle” is formulated, and a generalized scheme of this cycle is presented. This study revealed the territorial limits of Kuznetsk coal exports and use which formed the basis for determining the near concentrated consumption of coals including Kemerovo oblast and neighboring regions of Western Siberia. For this zone the proposals were developed for a modernization of the structure of coal production cycle including recommendations for the extraction of coal and associated components, their alternative exports and primary and downstream processing. Attention is focused on the economic-geographical substantiation of the specific location of enterprises for downstream processing of Kuznetsk coals including the facilities for coking, semicoking, generator and subsurface gasification, hydrogenization as well as transportation of coal via the Kuzbass–Ural coal pipeline.