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Vietnam to reduce 2008 coal exports by 38 percent
Vietnam, China’s biggest overseas coal supplier, will cut overall exports of the fuel by as much as 38 percent to 20 million metric tons this year to ensure domestic supplies.
The Southeast Asian nation will reduce its 2008 shipments from more than 32 million tons last year, Nguyen Thanh Bien, Vice Minister of Industry and Trade, said at a government meeting in Hanoi this week.
A cut in Vietnamese coal exports would force southern Chinese power producers to transport fuel from northern mines or import it from further afield.
Coal accounts for about 78 percent of the nation’s power generation.
“We need to save the fuel for the consumption of the domestic energy industry,’’ Bien said.
Coal exports in the first half fell to almost 14 million tons from 16.3 million tons a year earlier, according to Bien.
The government last month raised the export duty on coal to 20 percent from 15 percent to reduce shipments.
Vietnam’s coal production totaled more than 41 million tons last year, up 11.5 percent from 2006.
Thanhnien
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