Coal investments to be reduced

This information was released at a ceremony to announce a new master development plan for the coal sector by 2020 with a vision towards 2030 held on August 31 in Hanoi.

Trinh Duc Huy, deputy director of the Coal Industry Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the average capital demand would be VND17.9 trillion a year. In the period of 2016-20, the capital demand would be VND109 trillion in total.

The capital would be focused on investments and the expansion of coal projects. It could be arranged from a combination of different sources such as commercial loans, preferential loans and mobilising on the stock market.

Under the new master plan, exploitation in the northeast coal basin would be completed by 2020 to ensure reserves and natural resources. The Red River delta coal basin, the exploitation at Nam Thinh and a part of Nam Phu 2 in the northern Thai Binh Province’s Tien Hai District would be completed before the year of 2020.

Nguyen Khac Tho, deputy director of the ministry’s General Directorate of Energy said the ministry announced the new master plan because the demand for coal in sectors that used a lot of energy such as thermal electricity and cement had seen many changes.

“The new plan has updates to suit the sector’s current reality though the old plan has so far met with the energy demands of the country,” Thọ added.

Accordingly, coal output would be sharply reduced from 60-65 million tonnes by 2020 under the old plan to 47-50 million tonnes in the new one. The coal output would also be reduced by 2030 from 75 million tonnes to 55-57 million tonnes.

The reduction in coal output would be one of the reasons for lower capital demand, he said.

He said that the new plan has taken into account several plans to ensure the capital by mobilising build-operate-transfer (BOT) and public-private partnership (PPP) models.

“The target of the coal sector is to meet the coal demand of local households and to ensure energy security,” he added.

The sector also targeted to reduce coal losses to 20% in underground coal mines and in open-pit coal mining to 5% by 2020.

The plan aimed to exploit, process and use coal effectively to save the natural resource. The Government would give priority to domestic coal demand and consider gradually reducing overall exports as well as exporting types of coal that are not in high demand in the country.

The plan also pays attention to promoting the application of advanced technologies in coal exploration, exploitation and processing for the sector’s sustainable development.

The deputy director also affirmed that firms would be encouraged to import coal if they meet with regulations. The imports would not affect the National Coal and Minerals Industries Holding Group (Vinacomin).

Statistics from the ministry show that the total coal reserves of the country was 48.88 billion tones.