According to the Vietnam National Coal Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin), as from 2012 Vietnam will have to import coal and the quantity will rise from 34 million tonnes in 2015 to 114 million tonnes in 2020 and 228 million tonnes in 2025.

Some specialists from the Ministry of Industry and Trade recently forecast that Vietnam would have to import coal as early as 2015. However, in reality, imports will start earlier than expected. Vinacomin has just signed a contract to buy 3.5 million tonnes of coal from Indonesia for the Vinh Tan thermal power project in Binh Thuan province. Meanwhile, it has also sent specialists to Australia to prepare for the import of coal for other thermal power projects. 

It is no big surprise for people working in the coal sector that Vietnam which has many open-cast coal mines with great reserves will have to import coal sooner or later. As for outsiders, they still feel confused about the situation. Every year Vinacomin mines more than 50 million tonnes of coal, providing about 15 - 20 million tonnes for domestic use and the rest for export, mainly to China. This is not to mention the illegal export of millions of tonnes of coal, or even much more than that as was recently claimed by the press and investigators.

Coalmines in Quang Ninh province are the main sources of supply. According to Vinacomin, this coal mining region has total reserves of 10.5 billion tonnes, which are enough to supply the national economy with 50 million tonnes a year for the next 70 years.

In 2007, Vietnam exported more than 32.5 million tonnes of coal, earning US$1.018 billion, which is just enough to buy 7.5 million tonnes of coal for the time being. So, with the current wanton and unplanned exploitation and massive export of coal, it is obvious that the country will soon have to import coal to supply its thermal power plants.

Everyone knows that coal is a non-renewable resource. Coalmines are still operating in developed countries such as the US, Germany, Britain, France and Japan. However, none of these countries have used up their coal reserves and hastily exported coal as fast as Vietnam has. Conversely, they have limited coal production and have even closed some mines to protect their resources. Meanwhile, they have accelerated research on synthetic energy resources for many years now to find a substitute for coal. Even China, which is reported to have the largest number of coal mines in the world, with total annual production of up to 1.2 billion tonnes, still imports coal from Vietnam to keep in reserve!

Vinacomin’s paradoxical scheme to import coal was brought to light in April when 100 ships involved in exporting coal illegally were seized at Van Gia port in Quang Ninh province.

Vinacomin is the first company to take responsibility for the slack management of coal mining and sales which has caused serious damage to the country’s natural resources. The entire Quang Ninh provincial administrative network is also to blame for this situation. The provincial People’s Committee has approved many coal-mining projects by organisations and individuals outside the coal industry. The Quang Ninh Department for Planning and Investment alone has granted up to 500 licences to outsiders to trade coal. Meanwhile, some borderguards, port authorities, customs officers and marine police have also lent a hand to the illegal coal exporters. 

The coal sector has taken a number of diverse measures to improve management procedures for coal production. It has also proposed that the Government include coal in the list of monopolised goods and issue guidelines and a policy to encourage investment in coal production in order to ensure the nation’s energy security strategy in the coming decades. It’s because the recent practices in the coal sector have caused a huge loss to the country’s natural resources, threatened the nation’s energy security and rendered the State’s management system ineffective.