Vietnam to develop 6km conveyor belt to transport coal from Laos
Monday, July 01, 2024, 20:43 GMT+7
The People’s Committee of Quang Tri Province in north-central Vietnam has approved a project to build an over-six-kilometer-long conveyor belt to transport coal from Laos, the office of the provincial administration said on Monday.
The conveyor belt is set to carry 30 million metric tons of coal a year.
The project is aimed at facilitating coal transport between the two nations while local roads are narrow and degraded.
In addition, the project is meant to ensure energy security in Vietnam until 2030, meet the domestic demand for coal, and ease pressure on customs clearance at La Lay International Border Gate and on National Highway 15D.
The conveyor belt will start at the border between Vietnam and Laos, and end at a warehouse in A Ngo Commune, Dakrong District, Quang Tri.
It is designed to cover 23.8 hectares of land and is estimated to cost some VND1.5 trillion (US$58.3 million).
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| Vietnam's Quang Tri Province will build an over-six-kilometer-long conveyor belt to import coal from Laos. Photo: Hoang Tao / Tuoi Tre |
Over the past two years, coal imports from Laos into Vietnam have grown, with the coal cleared through customs at the pair of border gates between Dakrong District in Quang Tri and Laos’ Salavan Province.
La Lay International Border Gate receives nearly 4,000 metric tons of coal daily.
The figure can reach 12,000 metric tons of coal, equivalent to 400-450 trucks transporting coal, when there is no traffic congestion.
In 2023, Quang Tri imported 2.2 million metric tons of coal from Laos.
A recent surge in the number of trucks transporting coal from Laos to Vietnam has overwhelmed the border gate, leading to the degradation of National Highways 15D and 9, as well as the Ho Chi Minh Road.
Apart from the over-six-kilometer-long conveyor belt, the investor of the project proposed the province build two more conveyors, with one connecting the former with My Thuy Seaport and the other linking the Vietnam - Laos border and a coal mine in Laos’ Sekong Province.
The three conveyor belts are expected to create a conveyor system with a total length of 160 kilometers to transport coal from Laos to Vietnam.
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