VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese have been warned that the
country would seriously lack coal in the next three years, because the coal
industry lacks tens of billions of dollars’ worth of investment capital.
1,500 coal workers give up jobs because of low salaries
According to the Vietnam Energy
Association, the Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) employs
140,000 workers, including 110,000 in Quang Nin province.
If the situation gets worse,
110,000 workers would be laid off or see their income decreasing. This would
affect their 460,000 dependent family members.
It’s very serious that the number
of workers leaving their jobs keeps increasing steadily. It is estimated that
1500 workers have given up their jobs so far this year.
In the past, Vinacomin could
easily find workers from the northern provinces such as Thai Binh, Ha Nam, Hung
Yen and Hai Duong. However, it nowadays has to look for workers in remote areas
and central provinces. As a result, the coal exploiter has to pay higher for
the labor force.
Low salaries, hazardous working
environment and the business decline of the coal industry are the three main
seasons that have prompted them to run away.
A survey conducted in Thai
Nguyen, Lang Son and Quang Ninh on August 13 – September 20 showed that though
coal workers have to work in a hazardous environment, they receive 7 million
dong a month only, which is not enough for the workers who have 3-4 dependent
family members.
“A lot of workers leave after a
period of working, thus causing the serious shortage of the labor force,” VEA
has warned.
Coal industry needs tens of billions of dollars
According to VEA, the coal
industry needs to have the total output of 55 million tons of clean coal by
2015, or 58-60 million tons of crude ore to be able to satisfy the national
economy’s demand.
This spells that in the next
three years, Vinacoal would have to exploit 20 million tons of crude coal more.
As such, Vinacomin would have to build at least 10 more mines with the capacity
of 2-2.5 million tons per annum.
However, it is very difficult to
implement the project, for many reasons.
Firstly, it would take 6-7 years
and 300-350 million dollars to build a new mine pit. As such, Vinacomin needs
3.5 billion dollars in the immediate time to build 10 new mines.
And if Vincomin builds all the 28
new mines as requested by the government, and expands the 61 existing mines,
the group would need tens of billions of dollars.
The lack of capital for mining
remains the biggest headache for investors. The capital shortage has been
partially attributed to the low prices of the coal sold to power generators.
According to Vinacomin, the group
loses 7 trillion dong a year because of the sale of coal to the Electricity of
Vietnam at the prices lower than the production costs.
Secondly, the coal output and the
export price have been decreasing. In 2012, the coal export price dropped by
24-36 percent. Meanwhile, it is expected that the volume of coal to be consumed
would be five million tons lower than initially planned.
Thirdly, the input costs of coal
production has been increasing rapidly with higher burdens of tax and fee.
The energy association has warned
that if there is no breakthrough in the policies to be applied, Vietnam will
not have enough coal to provide to tens of thermopower plants (36,000 MW in
total), let alone other economic branches.
Pham Huyen
Business & Investment Opportunities
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