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MoC rules out possibility nation is overproducing cement

Deputy Minister of Construction, Nguyen Tran Nam, has denied domestic cement redundancy in an interview with Dantri.

>> Cement firms advised to downgrade coal

Deputy Minister of Construction, Nguyen Tran Nam, has denied domestic cement redundancy in an interview with DTiNews.

Seeking export markets does not mean cement overproduction

The topic was an item of discussion among many National Assembly (NA) deputies at the on-going NA session.

Many NA deputies said that the power sector has become the victim of many other industrial sectors, including cement. What is the ministry’s viewpoint of this?

The Ministry of Construction has reviewed the claims. We found that production of one million tonnes of cement consumes over 98 kWh of electricity. The national total cement output of 50 million tonnes will consume some 4.9 billion KWh of electricity this year.

The cement industry will account for a mere 5.7% of the forecasted national total power consumption of 85 billion KWh in 2010.

The rate of 5.7% is not very high for the cement production, which plays an important part in the Vietnamese construction sector. Therefore, other conclusions based on inaccurate figures can be hasty and subjective.

Some NA deputies said that the cement development planning has been adjusted 4 times in 10 years and forecasts on cement consumption are still far from the real demand, leading to cement overproduction. What are your comments on this?

According to the Ministry of Construction, NA deputies must be responsible for giving accurate information about the above-mentioned information. In reality, this information is groundless.

In 1997, the prime minister approved an overall cement development plan through 2010. In 2002, the government instructed the re-adjustment of the planning to meet the sharply higher consumption demand.

In 2005, cement output was raised to serve many new areas such as transport, irrigation work, construction and new material production. The prime minister asked to build the 2nd cement industry development planning for the development of the national key industrial sectors, but not the overproduction.

After the five-year period since 2005, this year we will build a new plan for the cement sector in the 2011-2020 period with a vision until 2030. This is a compulsory task for every sector, not only the cement industry.

So far this year, cement firms have exported nearly one million tonnes of cement. Why are they exporting so much if it is needed in Vietnam?

The specific characteristics of the Vietnamese cement industry is that mineral mines for cement production are mostly located in the north, while the south consumes half of the country’s cement output. The cement consumption in both regions is clearly different, thus, the whole-year market will see cement oversupply and shortage sometimes.

Additionally, the cement transport to the south sometimes faces difficulties, therefore, in specific circumstances, enterprises have to seek export markets to maximise their investment efficiency.

Currently, Vietnam’s cement inventory is equal to just 10 days of production and the figure of roughly one million tonnes for export is a very small ratio against the forecast of 50 million in consumption in the country this year.

The 10% reserve rate of cement companies is aimed to rotationally supply the southern market. Therefore, there is no cement overproduction.

Thank you

Source: dtinews.vn
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