XIAMEN, China, March 8 (Reuters) - Mongolia aims to keep coal exports to China broadly steady at 60 million metric tons in 2024, an official from the Mongolian Coal Association said on Friday, citing logistics as the biggest challenge to boosting sales to key trading partner China.

Mongolia set the same export target last year but exceeded it, with actual imports totaling 69.6 million tons.

Zoljargal Jargalsaikhan Zolo, executive director at the Mongolian Coal Association, said he expected a rail connection called Bichigt, which is to be built this year or next, to boost movement of coal between the two countries.

"China Energy won the bid for construction of that facility, and we hope they will do this on the time they promised. That will be a very important event for China and Mongolia for long term trade and reliable partnership," he said.

Mongolia has been boosting coal exports to China, with its share in Chinese imports surging to 14.7% in 2023 from 4.9% in 2021, Zolo told the 2024 China Coal Import International Summit.

Zolo also said he expected coal trade on a recently inaugurated mineral exchange to increase, helping aid transparency after an outbreak of protests in 2022 over corruption in Mongolia's coal industry.

Mongolia sold 15 million tons of coal on the exchange in 2023, he said, adding that state-owned companies sell about half their coal on there. (Reporting by Colleen Howe; Writing by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Tom Hogue and Miral Fahmy)