The Inner Mongolia region is an important area for energy, heavy chemicals, and agricultural and animal products. The following industries each have their own distinct features and advantages, namely the energy industry, metallurgy and construction material industry, agricultural and livestock products processing industry, chemical industry, equipment manufacturing industry, and hi-tech industry, among which the equipment manufacturing industry, hi-tech industry and modern service industry are developing rapidly.

Energy

The region produced 845.59 million tons of coal and 1.74 million tons of crude oil in 2016, and generated 394.98 billion kW of electricity, with46.42 billion kW of that from wind.

Chemicals

Progress in coal-to-oil, coal-to-olefin, coal-to-gas, and coal-to-glycol conversion projects is being made, producing a total of 7.41 million tons of carbinol in 2016,as well as 1.24 million tons of coal-to-oil and 1.7 billion cubic meters of coal-to-gas.

The region's steel output reached 20.17 million tonsin 2016, while output of 10 types of non-ferrous metals reached 3.34 million tons, with 2.73 million tons of that in aluminum, aluminum strips and foil. Cement output reached 63.14 million tons for the construction materials industry.

Equipment

The region has heavy-duty vehicles, engineering equipment centers, and wind-power, railway, and oil equipment, generating a heavy-duty vehicle production capacity of 50,000 units; passenger vehicles, 150,000 units (300,000 diesel), railway cars, 4,000 units; and wind power generators, 7,000 units. Production of new energy vehicles has begun along with televisions and mobile phones.

High technology

The city of Baotou is a rare earth base with a complete industrial chain. It also has many top products, such as NMR spectrometers, and annually produces more than 10,000 tons of polycrystalline silicon and monocrystalline silicon.

Its cloud computing industry is developing rapidly resulting in steady progress in biomedicine. The cities of Hohhot, Tongliao, and Chifeng have built an industrial chain for bulk pharmaceuticals, animal vaccines, pesticides, fermented products, Sino-Mongolian medicines, and chemical synthetic medicines. Hohhot is also home to a bio-medical cluster with China's biggest bio-fermentation base, dominated by medicines and production of related raw materials.

Agricultural and animal products

The region produced 27.80 billion kg of grain, 2.59 million tons of meat, and 7.34 million tons of milk in 2016. Its mutton and cashmere output rank top in China.

As a result, it has many famous names, such as dairy brands Yili and Mengniu, Khorchin Fat Cow and Erdos.

Service sector

The region has seen rapid growth in services, including business logistics, transportation, finance and insurance, information, and ports, and its tourism industry contributed 271.5 billion yuan ($39.45 billion) to profits in 2016.