The Ministry of Industry and Trade will issue a circular next year
regulating energy consumption ceilings for key industries in a move to
prevent them from using energy-guzzling machines and equipment, the
Saigon Times Daily reported.
The circular will set criteria for
energy consumption of steel, paper and pulp, plastics, food and
beverages industries, Trinh Quoc Vu, Head of the ministry’s Sciences,
Technology and Energy Saving Department, was quoted as saying.
Vu
told the Daily on the sidelines of a conference on the legal framework
and policies for effective energy use in Ho Chi Minh City last week that
the ministry will ask the Government for approval to apply the strict
energy consumption criteria.
Manufacturers will be heavily fined
or forced to suspend production if they fail to meet the criteria. Vu
said such criteria are deemed as technical barriers to stop imports of
outdated machines and equipment as well as machinery production using
old technology.
In Vietnam, annual energy consumption grew 11
percent in 2005-2010 but has soared more than 17 percent in recent years
due to surging demand in the country, Vu said.
A study by the World Bank revealed that energy consumption in Vietnam will continue high growth in the years to come.
Vu
noted high electricity consumption will lead to an imbalance between
supply and demand in the future and that after 2016, the country will
likely have to import coal and gas to quench the domestic thirst for
energy.
Energy experts said steel industry is now the biggest
energy taker, accounting for 5.26 percent of the total electricity
consumption every year in the country.
The country now has 65
steel and iron mills with combined annual output of 100,000 tonnes.
Although those facilities currently run at only half of their designed
capacity, they consume 3.5 billion kWh of electricity every year.
Experts attributed huge electricity consumption of the steel industry to the still-widespread use of old furnaces.-VNA