The major branch of the economy of the Krai is heavy industry. The most developed branches of heavy industry are machine construction, ferrous metallurgy and the branches involved in the acquiring and processing of the major natural resources of the Krai including timber, pulp and paper, oil processing and nonferrous metallurgy and chemical processing.
The Khabarovsk Krai produces the entire volume of steel, rolled stock and oil refining in the Far Eastern economic region, as well as a considerable part of the entire volume of timber logging, machine construction and pulp and paper products. With a variety of products, the industries of the Krai are distinguished by their production not only in the Far East of Russia but in the Russian Federation as well.
This excellence in industry can be attributed to the active process of the transformation of property within the economy of the Krai. The majority of state-owned businesses have been privatized, and the formation of a multi-structural economy and the development of small and medium businesses are under way. This, coupled with a structural outline of the development of economic potential, contributes to the industrial success of the Krai. Machine construction enterprises in the Krai include the manufacturing of ocean and river vessels, aircraft, diesel engines and diesel generators, metal cutting tools, power engineering and casting machines, cable products, storage batteries, processing equipment for the fish industry and consumer goods. The machine construction industry consists primarily of being a highly developed military-industrial complex comprising of large scale aircraft and ship building enterprises.
New tasks now facing the machine construction industry of the Krai are namely those of its reorientation to satisfy the needs of the local economy and the people living there. The tasks are as follows:
- manufacturing of machines and equipment for forest, mining and fishing industries and for the processing branches of the agro-industrial complex
- conversion of military-oriented enterprises
- manufacturing of machinery modified to suit northern conditions
- advanced introduction of scientific and technological progress, the pursuit of labor and power saving strategies.
The only metallurgical works in the Far East is "Amurstal Works" (Komsomolsk-on- Amur), with the annual capacity of 2 million tons of rolled stock, with the main product being steel sheets (60%). At the same time, the kinds and types of metal products not produced in the Krai are imported from the other areas of the country.
The primary material processed at the "Amurstal Works" is scrap metal, which is supplied by the far-eastern enterprises. Other kinds of raw materials for steel making are supplied from Siberia and the Urals.
Khabarovsk Krai satisfies a significant part of Russia's demand for tin. The tin mining industry is represented by a large enterprise, the Solnechny Integrated Mining and Dressing Works (IMDW), which produces tin, zinc, copper, lead and tungsten concentrates. The ores utilized are complex, containing up to 20 components.
The Krai is one of the oldest areas of placer gold mining in the country. Placers have been developed for over 100 years, with development work primarily done by gold-digging teams. At present, the share of state-owned enterprises engaged in gold mining is one fourth of the total number. Since 1991, the development of the Mnogovershinny mine in the vicinity of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur has begun. Further development of gold mining is associated with expanding the stock of raw materials, enhancing the prospecting of the placer reserves and increasing gold mining output at primary deposits.