HANOI: Mineral Industries, better known as Vinacomin, sold nearly 8.7 million mt of coal to domestic consumers in the first quarter of this year, up 6.1% from 8.2 million mt in the same period of last year, due to higher demand from the power sector, the company said in a statement Friday.
But the country’s major coal producer also faced stiff competition from other local supply sources and imported coal from Russia, Australia, Indonesia and China in the first three months of this year, according to the statement.
State-owned Vietnam Electricity, or EVN, the national power generation and distribution company, added more than 3,400 MW of electricity generation capacity from new coal-fired power plants in 2015. These power plants consume nearly 10 million mt/year of coal, EVN data showed. In the first two months, Vietnam imported 2.4 million mt of coal, spiking 295.9% year on year.
The main sources were: Australia with 904,211 mt, up 357.9% year on year; Russia 658,920 mt, 22 times higher than 29,851 mt in the same period of 2015; China 436,510 mt, more than eight times higher than 51,697 mt over January-February last year; and Indonesia 380,353 mt, up 58.7% year on year, according to last month’s customs data.
Vinacomin targets to sell 10 million mt of coal in Q2, jumping 14.9% from Q1. The country’s power sector is expected to be the biggest buyer of coal, consuming about 33.2 million mt in 2016, or about 69.9%, of the estimated total coal consumption in the year. Power sector consumption is expected to rise to 64.1 million mt, or 74.2% of the total by 2020, about 96.5 million mt or 79.4% of the total by 2025 and 131.1 million mt or 83.7% of the total demand by 2030, a government report said last month.
