Regional Coal: Vietnam to become coal importer in 2013

Vietnam will turn into coal importer in 2013 as its local production would no longer be able to meet increasing domestic requirement, the Country?s state-owned firm said.

Vietnam will likely import 5-7 million tonnes in 2013, ramping up to 20 MT in 2015, Vinacomin GM Import/Export division Dinh Quang Trung said when addressing a conference in Singapore on Thursday.

Trung said that import may further increase to 100MT in 2020 as the country is embarking on massive coal-fired power plants development.

This year, Vietnam will still be exporting 17 MT of coal out of expected total production of 44 MT. The number will be decreasing to 10 MT in 2011, he said.

According to him, Vietnamese government has appointed Vinacomin and PV Coal, a unit of state oil, gas firm PetroVietnam as the only companies to carry out coal import to Vietnam.

He said that Vietnam most likely will source 80 percent of its coal import from Indonesia and the rest from Australia. (denny)