Vietnam will soon need to import coal

• 14 years ago (2009-12-28)
• David Flin

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The Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) has said that the country may need to start importing coal as early as 2012, three years earlier than expected, to meet its electricity demands. The need to import parallels the country’s demand for electricity, which is expected to increase by 17-20 per cent a year, according to a report by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Due to the country’s rising reliance on thermal power generation and the Government’s increasing power generation targets, much more coal than is currently being produced domestically would be needed, said Dr Pham Khanh Toan, Director of the Institute of Energy of Vietnam. He said that the sector was already failing to meet Government targets, as in the fourth quarter of 2009, the domestic electricity industry produced an extra 1400MW instead of the targeted additional 3393MW.