Water project to help power, steel industries

Dang Van Thanh, deputy director of Vung Ang Economic Zone (VAEZ) Management Authority, said that this water project was racing toward on a trial run on November 15, 2012.

“Our water project with the designed capital of one million cubic metres of water per day would ensure stable water supplies for VAEZ as well as push key projects ahead,” Tran Dinh Dung, consultant for the water project.

Recently, VAEZ has attracted much attention from large international and domestic investors. Some of its completed projects are being operated effectively such as Vung Ang oil and gas depot, northern central LPG depot and Vung Ang port. Besides, Vung Ang 1 thermal power plant and Formosa steel complex are under the construction.

Demand for water in the economic zone to 2015 is expected to increase 20-fold higher than its general plan to 390,663 cubic metres per day. Much of the water would go to the  $8.9 billion Formosa steel complex with an expected demand of 173,400 cubic metres per day, according to VAEZ.

Under Ha Tinh Provincial People’s Committee’s Decision 2639/QD-UBND dated August 2011 on approving the adjustment of water supply demand for VAEZ to 2025, demand of water to 2025 was about one million cubic metres per day, in which  the demand for water was 320,000-660,000 cubic metres for the Formosa steel complex.

Previously, Formosa Chemical Corporation chairman Chen Bao Lang raised water shortage concerns for its project in a Ministry of Industry and Trade meeting. “We are trying to put  the steel project online in 2014. However, a lack of water for the project is the barrier for our dreams,” said Lang.

Tran Quang Thuong, deputy general director of Hoanh Son Joint Stock Company, the water project developer, said that although contracts had not been signed, the company was ready to supply 174,000 cubic metres for the Formosa steel project as required by Ha Tinh Provincial People’s Committee.

Ha Tinh province-based VAEZ was established according to the governmental Decision 72/2006/QD-TTg dated April 3, 2006, covering 22,781 hectares.

Up to 2010, VAEZ has issued investment certificates  and business registration certificates to 103 enterprises with a combined registered capital of nearly $12 billion.