Australian, Vietnamese firms strike coal export deal

Australia 's Environmental Clean Technologies (ETC) has signed a multi-million dollar trade and investment deal with Vietnam 's Thang Long Investment and Commercial Joint Stock Company (TinCom) to export processed brown coal to Vietnam .   

According to the Melbourne technology company, the deal enables ECT and TinCom, through their joint venture company Victoria Coldry Pty Ltd (VCPL), to export 2 million tonnes a year of Coldry pellets from early 2014, expanding up to 20 million tonnes a year in its first decade of operations.   

Under the agreement, ETC will provide a licence for its technology to enable brown coal to be transformed into environmentally cleaner black coal equivalent pellets. At the same time, TinCom will provide up to 100 million USD in first stage equity finance, representing one of the largest investments by Vietnam in Australia .    

ECT and its Vietnamese partner plan to build a processing plant in the Australian state of Victoria 's Latrobe Valley . The Coldry plant is expected to be fully operational by late 2013 or early 2014.   

The deal was formalised on June 25 as part of a visit to Australia by Vietnam 's Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc to co-chair the 9th Australia-Vietnam Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee (JTECC) with Australia 's Trade Minister Simon Crean in Melbourne .   

"It is about Australian technology being used to deliver a more environmentally sensitive energy solution to the people of Vietnam – a small but important contribution to the global effort to reduce carbon emissions," Trade Minister Crean said on June 25.    

" Vietnam is buying the Australian resource but also, importantly, investing in the Australian technology to lower the carbon footprint," he added. 

According to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, two-way trade value between Australia and Vietnam in 2009 was 6 billion AUD./.