Vinacomin seeks to raise coal prices
A proposal to increase the Vietnamese domestic coal price is being considered by the relevant State agencies and economic experts, said Pham Trung Hung of the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin).
Athough information on Vinacomin’s proposed price increase has not been officially released, it has created worries for the sectors which rely on coal for production, including the cement, electrical, chemical industries.
Vinacomin said that the cost of exploiting and processing in the first six months of this year had increased 7 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Hung argued that it was necessary to raise the price of coal to cover the increasing costs.
Revenues from the coal industry in the first half of the year were more than VND8 billion (over US$500 million), of which US$417 million came from exports. So, income from exports would provide investment capital for the industry’s
growth, he said. In the first six months of this year, the industry exported more than 13Mt of coal, up 63.6 per cent over the same period last year. Domestic coal consumption during the period was only around 7Mt, Tuat noted. Published under Cement News
