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Vietnam's coal exports to China to fall this year

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-15 14:40

The volume of Vietnam's coal exported to China this year is estimated to drop by some one-third because a port in Vietnam's biggest coal hub has been damaged by a recent storm, local newspaper Pioneer reported Friday.

The volume is likely to decline by eight million tons, because three out of four cargo-loading facilities at the Cam Pha port in northern Quang Ninh province, the coal hub, have been heavily damaged, the newspaper quoted Citigroup Inc, a major American financial services company, as reporting.

According to Macquarie Group, a diversified international provider of banking, financial, advisory and investment services based in Australia, the volume can drop by up to 10-12 million tons.

Vietnam supplied the world market with nearly 14.5 million tons of coal worth $811 million in the first seven months of this year, down 22.7 percent in volume but up 38.4 percent in value against the same period last year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Vietnam is lessening the export of such fossil fuel as crude oil and coal to ensure sufficient supplies for oil refineries and energy-thirsty industries like electricity and cement.

Vietnam will, under a recent national coal development strategy, produce 48-50 million tons of coal in 2010, and complete exploration of new coal mines in the northern Red River Delta by 2015. Using more advanced technologies in all stages of coal production, it will churn out more high-quality coal, and affect the environment less.