Vietnam rushes to import coal to feed thermal power plants Facing a lack of coal for power generation, Vietnamese state-owned enterprises are rushing to look for foreign coal suppliers.  Dinh Quang Tri, Deputy General Director of the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), noted that enterprises are importing coal themselves to run thermal power plants instead of relying on the Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin), the only domestic coal supplier. According to Tri, it was very difficult to import coal two to three years ago, when the world market was hot because of high demand from As “It’s now a buyer’s market,” Tri said. “The supply is very abundant with the overproduction in Three EVN’s power plants with the total capacity of 3,000 MW are now using imported coal, including the expanded Duyen Hai 3 (600 MW), Vinh Tan 4 (1,200 MW) and Duyen Hai 3 (1,200 MW). On average, a 1,200 MW power plant would need some 4 million tons of coal per annum, which means that EVN would need to import 10 million tons of coal every year. The Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) has also been looking for coal supply sources itself instead of expecting supply from Vinacomin. PetroVietnam is running five thermal power plants with the total capacity of 6,000 MW. Of these, three would run with imported coal, including Long Phu 1, Quang Trach 1 and Song Hau 1. A contract was signed by PetroVietnam and an Australian coal company in February under which PetroVietnam would import 3 million tons of coal a year. Observers noted that power generators have got so “fed up” with Vinacomin that they now are trying to seek import supply sources themselves instead of using Vinacomin’s coal or importing coal through Vinacomin. At least 1/3 of its thermal power plants will have to run with coal imports, because the domestic coal supply will be just enough for plants in the northern and central regions. Vinacomin has been assigned by the government to look for foreign coal supply sources to prepare for the coal import plan to start after 2015. It is expected that However, Vinacomin admitted that the coal import plan implementation is making no headway. Le Minh Chuan, Chair of Vinacomin, said the biggest problem now is that Vinacomin does not know how much coal power generators need. “Enterprises have to register the coal volumes they expect to consume. We will suffer if we have to import coal but cannot sell to domestic consumers,” Chuan said. Tri of EVN said some miners in Pham Huyen, |
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