Reuters quoted the government said Vietnam aims to raise its coal output to 55 million tonnes to 58 million tonnes in 2015 from an estimated 48.9 million tonnes this year in an effort to meet demand for fast growing electricity production.

The government said late on Tuesday in a plan for coal development that output is projected to rise to more than 75 million tonnes by 2030 thanks to the exploitation of new sites.

Electricity demand is growing at 7% to 10% a year and Vietnam is having trouble ensuring supply.

State utility Vietnam Electricity has said coal will be a major fuel for electricity over the next five years and will account for 47% of power generation by 2020.

The country has a dozen thermal power plants under construction which are expected to start operation by 2015.

Vinacomin the state run coal and mineral group plans to import at least 5 million tonnes of the fossil fuel in 2015 and officially starting imports in large volumes.

A government coal development plan said Vietnam has estimated total coal reserves at 48.7 billion tonnes by 2011.

(Sourced from Reuters)