Over 10 million tons of import coal to exceed forecast

Coal importsexceeded the forecast of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Photo: Internet.

The Information has recently been announced by the General Department of Customs. With the above quantity, we have spent nearly $US 630 million to import coal. Thus, the volume of imported coal increased by more 173% over the same period in2015 (in the same period, about 3.7 million tons were imported), and the value of turnover increased nearly 97%. However, the average import value per one tonof coal fell 26.3% in this year compared with the same period last year. Specifically, the price in 2015 was $US 84.5/ton, whiletheprice in 2016 was only $US 62.3/ton.

Chart of the 3 biggest Vietnam import coal markets atthe end of August, 2016. (unit:“million tons”) . Chart: T.Binh.

Not only increasingdramatically over the same period, the volume of import coal exceeded the forecast of the Ministry of Industry and Trade atthis time.

According to adocument we collected, on January, 2016, in a report submitted to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Industry and Trade launched a modest forecast on the volume of imported coal at3.173 million tons in 2016. But, the above shows that the fact exceeded the MOIT forecast.

It is unclear the basis of the MOIT’sprediction that imported coal would be so low, because, clearly, domestic coal production had no significant increase in recenttime, while demand of this product remainedhigh, soa high volume of importswasinevitable.

Statistics of the General Department of Customs showed that from 2013, coal products began to appear in the "basket" of the import goods statistics of this agency.

Accordingly, in 2013, the country imported 2.27 million tons; in 2014, the import coal output reached nearly 3.1 million tons, up 36.3% compared to 2013. By 2015, import coal soared to nearly 7 million tons, an increase of 124.8% compared to2014. And until now, the volume of coal imports has skyrocketed as mentioned above.

In terms of the import market, three markets which supplied the most coal for Vietnam are: Russia with a volume of 2.8 million tons, turnover was more than $US 179 million (according to the latest information of the General Department of Customs divided into market in the end of August - reporter); China with 1.4 million tons, turnover of $US 100 million, and Indonesia with 1.8 million tons, a turnover of $ US 80 million.

In these markets, the price of imported coal was the highest level of $US 71.4/ton, Russian price was nearly $US 64/ton, Indonesian pricewas$US 44.4/ton.