Reuters reported that Japan Marubeni has agreed to sell Vinacomin, Vietnam top coal mining group and between 1 million and 2 million tonnes of Australian or Indonesian coal a year.

The Vietnamese group said in a statement that Mr Mamoru Sekiyama Marubeni senior managing executive officer agreed this during a visit to Vinacomin office in Hanoi.

It gave no date for the start of the arrangement and Marubeni officials in Hanoi could not immediately be reached for comment.

State utility Vietnam Electricity has said coal will take over from hydro power as the leading fuel for new electricity generation in Vietnam, so far a net coal exporter in the next five years.

Vietnam plans to build a number of power plants including coal fired thermal plants in coming years as it grapples with rising power demand and has to buy electricity from southern China as part of measures to avoid outages.

Vinacomin or the Vietnam National Coal, Mineral Industries Holding Corp Ltd has forecast its coal output this year would be 44 million tonnes unchanged from 2010.

(Sourced from Reuters)