Vietnam coal giant to lay off 4,000 miners this year

By Ha Phuong   October 13, 2016 | 01:00 pm PT
Cheap coal imports are driving workers out of their jobs.

The Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Corporation (Vinacomin) is planning to lay off 4,000 workers in 2016, an official from the corporation said on Tuesday.

Vinacomin’s revenue reached $3.2 million in the first nine months of 2016, equivalent to 93 percent of the same period last year.

The corporation's profits have fallen for five consecutive years, and coal output is also forecast to fall 8.7 percent this year.

This sharp decline is due to cheap imported coal that costs $5-10 less per ton than local sources, according to Vinacomin.

In the first eight months of this year, the country imported nearly 10 million tons of coal worth $574 million, three times higher than the figure the government had estimated for the entire year; and it is forecast to keep growing.

Vietnam produced approximately 21 million tons of coal per year from 2006 to 2011, data from Vietnam Customs shows.

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