Vinacomin said that it had considered a halt to the Nhan Co bauxite project, but was scared about the major losses in its investment.
Construction site of Nhan Co aluminum project
At a press conference of the group on May 16, Vinacomin spokesman Nguyen Tien Chinh said, “We’ve spent a huge amount of money on the project. The EPC contract has been signed. How can we deal with the contract as a result of a halt in the project?”
“Vinacomin has ever thought of stopping the project as well as its impact, but we didn’t dare because we may face big losses,” he added, emphasising that the group will continue the project.
The Nhan Co bauxite project in Dak Nong has a design capacity of 650,000 tonnes per year.
By April this year, total disbursement of Nhan Co aluminum project had reached VND6.836 trillion (USD325.2 million), including VND4.6 trillion (USD219.04 million) from the EPC contract. Up to 72 out of 73 items in the contract have been implemented. The Nhan Co aluminum project is expected to come into operation in mid-2014.
A number of experts and scientists proposed the halt of Nhan Co aluminum project and urged Vinacomin to quickly assess the Tan Rai aluminum project’s efficiency to decide whether continue the Nhan Co aluminum project or not.
According to experts, the transport distance of 260km from Nhan Co aluminum plant to the port is a major difficulty if Vinacomin does not have a solution to mitigate the transport costs.
Vinacmoin said it had not bought transport vechicles for both projects but hired other firms. It had calculated the costs carefully in an efficiency assessment.
“We wanted to listen to the proposals for consideration. Being an investor, we will be responsible for Nhan Co aluminum project’s efficiency. We can say for sure that in terms of design and careful consideration, the project is feasible,” Mr. Chinh noted.
He also disclosed that the government had approved Vinacomin’s approval to slash aluminum export taxes to 0% from the level of 15-40% set by the National Assembly.
