Vietnam May Raise Coal Prices Next Year

Vietnam may raise coal prices next year

HANOI, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) — Vietnam is likely to increase prices of coal products between 31-57 percent in the domestic market in 2006, due to mainly the rising production cost, the Vietnam Coal Corporation (Vinacoal) told Xinhua Wednesday.

“We’re waiting for the government’s approval to our proposal. The price hike’ll be applied to coal products sold to power, cement, paper and fertilizer industries,” the state-owned corporation said, adding that its production cost is estimated to rise 15.6 percent this year over last year.

Vinacoal, the country’s biggest coal producer, which currently sells its products for average 427,500 Vietnamese dong (27 US dollars) per ton, plans to produce 30 million tons of coal next year.

The country is expected to exploit nearly 47.6 million tons of coal in 2010, and over 64.4 million tons of the mineral in 2020. It plans to sell some 14 million tons of coal overseas this year, up 32 percent against last year, of which 9 million tons are expected to go to China, Vinacoal said.

Vietnam, which exported more than 10.6 million tons of coal valued at 319 million dollars to over 20 countries and regions last year, shipped abroad over 11.3 million tons of coal valued at 437 million dollars in the first nine months of this year, posting year- on-year respective surges of 35.6 percent and 78.9 percent.