Vietnam has a coal inventory of 10 million tons.

Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industry Group (Vinacomin) currently has coal inventories reaching 10 million tons, while coal imports in the past four months have also reached 4.7 million tons.

Coal imports are increasing.

According to statistics from the General Department of Customs, in April 2016, coal imports reached 1.252 million tons with a value of 77.9 million USD. In total, during the first four months of 2016, coal imports reached 4.7 million tons with a value of 289.4 million USD.

Thus, compared to the whole year of 2015, when coal imports reached 6.96 million tons with a value of 548.5 million USD, coal imports have increased rapidly in quantity, while the average price has decreased.

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In Quang Ninh province, coal imports reached 1.6 million tons in the first four months of the year, exceeding the 1.4 million tons imported in 2015. According to the Quang Ninh Customs Department, there are currently 18 units importing coal through the province. Imported coal is currently taxed at 0%. With the downturn in the global energy market and low oil prices leading to a sharp drop in coal prices, imported coal is currently more advantageous than domestic coal by approximately 5-8 USD/ton.

The trend of importing coal is also considered inevitable as the number of coal-fired power plants continues to increase. Currently, there are 19 coal-fired power plants nationwide, and this number is expected to increase to 52 by 2030, requiring a total of approximately 85 million tons of imported coal per year.

Inventory pressure

Many coal companies have stated that the lack of significant price increases for energy commodities such as oil and coal on the international market in the coming months will cause Vinacomin to face many difficulties. Furthermore, many companies in other sectors will proactively purchase imported coal to supply their operations.

According to the plan, in 2016, Vinacomin will mine over 38 million tons of raw coal, including more than 35 million tons of clean coal. Vinacomin and the Northeast Corporation have also just received government approval to export 2.05 million tons of coal, with Vinacomin alone accounting for 2 million tons as requested by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Mr. Nguyen Van Bien, Deputy General Director of Vinacomin, said that during the production and sorting process, there will be high-quality coal types that are not currently needed domestically or are not fully utilized. Mixing them to create lower-quality coal for domestic needs would be wasteful and inefficient. Furthermore, if stored for a long time, the coal will weather, reducing its quality and value significantly. The selling price of high-quality coal such as lump coal grades 4 and 5 and fine coal grades 1, 2, and 3 is also more than double that of fine coal grades 5 and 6 used for electricity production.

According to Baodautu