A large amount of copper slag waste in the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa is nowhere to be found after ships carrying the material ‘disappeared’ on their way to treatment facilities.

Over the past four years, about 309 vessels have transported nearly 400,000 metric tons of copper slag from the factory of Hyundai’s Vinashin Shipyard Company (HVS) in Khanh Hoa, to cement factories across the country for treatment.

However, many of the ships have ‘gone missing’ on their way to the facilities, casting doubt over whether or not they were in fact heading toward their stated destinations.

Copper slag, known in Vietnam as ‘nix grains,’ is a by-product of copper extraction by smelting and is mainly used to clean and shape the surface of metal, stone, concrete and other materials.

HVS has imported a huge amount of this material to clean its vessels since May 1999.

On October 16, 2013, a first ship carried 1,000 metric tons of copper slag to the north-central province of Quang Binh for the first time, where it would be used as auxiliary material for cement production at a local factory.

Many other ships were then directed to multiple cement plants in provinces from northern to southern Vietnam, namely Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, Quang Binh, Binh Dinh, and Kien Giang among others.

A probe by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper revealed that 26 out of 309 vessels had gone to Vung Ro Bay in Phu Yen Province, and Quy Nhon City in Binh Dinh, both in south-central Vietnam.

These ships transported over 29,300 metric tons of copper slag to the two localities where HVS had not signed a contract with any local cement factory.

In early August, Tuoi Tre reporters arrived in Vung Ro and Quy Nhon to seek clarification of the matter.

The records of both local port authorities failed to indicate the arrival of any ship carrying ‘nix grains’, contradicting the list provided by the Nha Trang Port Authority, the agency approving the journeys of HVS’s copper slag vessels.

During several phone interviews, owners of some of the ships said they had gone to Len Bang Port in Quang Binh and Vissai in Binh Binh instead of Vung Ro and Quy Nhon.

“There must have been some mistake by the port authority,” one ship owner assumed, while Nha Trang authorities claimed there had been no such error.

After reviewing records at the two ports, the reporters found that all 26 did arrive, and that the copper slag was unloaded and transferred to local cement plants.

10 still missing

In another revelation, Le Duc Cuong, deputy director of the Port Authority of Inland Waterway Area No.2, discovered that 15 ships carrying 27,757 metric tons of copper slag had not arrived in Quang Binh and Ninh Binh as stated in the documents of the Nha Trang Port Authority.

Cuong said the journeys of these ships took place between late 2013 and late 2016.

According to Nguyen Thi Yen, a representative of the Hanoi-based Mascon Company, which signed a deal with HVS to transport its waste to Quang Binh, Mascon signed another deal to task Vinafco, a company in central Vietnam, with the transportation, and was thus not aware of the missing ships.

Meanwhile, Pham Duc Minh, leader of Dong Do Company, responsible for delivering the ‘nix grains’ to Ninh Binh, said the missing vessels were redirected to Ha Nam Province in northern Vietnam.

Responding to Tuoi Tre, HVS confirmed that Mascon and Dong Do had found the 15 missing vessels by August 11.

However, the information provided by HVS did not correspond to records the journalists had collected from local port authorities.

For example, the Thanh Do ship carried 1,000 metric tons of copper slag to Len Bang Port, Quang Binh on November 15 and again on November 17, 2013.

The ship Xuan Thang 88 carried 862 metric tons of the waste in March 2015 and was said to be heading to Ha Nam, while the provincial port authority had no record of any such vessel in that period.

For further clarification, Cuong, deputy director of the Port Authority of Inland Waterway Area No.2, had directly reviewed all documents.

According to his results, 10 ships are still ‘missing’ as of August 16.

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