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Tag: asia

  • Seafood exporters situation more dire than during Covid

    Seafood exporters situation more dire than during Covid

    Seafood exporters are seeing orders plummet and facing even greater difficulties than during the Covid-19 pandemic.

    In the first five months of this year their exports fell by 28% to $3.37 billion and companies saw a decline of 20-50% in export orders, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

    Prices too have been falling due to the low demand, making it harder for companies to repay bank loans and manage other expenses.

    A severe shortage of raw fish and shrimp is expected in early 2024, VASEP said.

    Seafood exports this year are projected to be $9 billion, or nearly $2 billion less than last year.

    To mitigate the industry’s problems, VASEP has called on the government to reduce bank lending interest rates and make credit more accessible to it.

    It wants the interest rates on U.S. dollar loans to be reduced to below 4% and on dong loans to under 7%.

    It has demanded a rollover of loans by four to six months and a special credit package for small seafood producers.

    It has also proposed that a VND10-trillion stimulus package for the Mekong Delta region that is under consideration should be disbursed early so that exporters can start stockpiling raw materials early.

    Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had instructed the State Bank of Vietnam in April to consider such a package.

  • AirAsia X expands medium-haul network to Northern India

    AirAsia X expands medium-haul network to Northern India

    AirAsia Aviation Group’s medium-haul affiliate airline, AirAsia X, continues to expand its network with renewed direct services from Kuala Lumpur to Amritsar in Northern India.

    Its chief executive officer, Benyamin Ismail said the restart of the route is part of the company’s effort to strengthen AAX’s position in South Asia, complementing its robust network in North Asia.

    “We are optimistic that this route relaunch will not only enhance our medium-haul destination offering with affordable fares but also contribute to the overall business growth,” he said in a statement today.

    The renewed direct services will be scheduled four times weekly, effective from Sept 3, 2023, with access to Amritsar, a destination known for its religious significance, tourism attractions, commercial opportunities, and trade prospects.

    “As the second destination to India after New Delhi, this route will deliver an additional annual capacity of 157,263 seats between Kuala Lumpur and Amritsar for AAX,” it said.

    To celebrate the route recommencement, AAX is offering promotional all-in fare from RM299 one-way for the economy seat and RM999 one-way for the Premium Flatbed.

    In addition, guests travelling to/from Amritsar will also enjoy 50 per cent off check-in baggage when they book from today until July 2, 2023, for the travel period between Sept 3, 2023, and March 30, 2024.

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  • Alibaba aims to expand local business in Europe

    Alibaba aims to expand local business in Europe

    Alibaba Group will make Europe top priority as it focuses on building local businesses and online platforms outside China, the president of the e-commerce giant said on Thursday.

    “What we will focus more for the future is to build local businesses, so you will see something called TMall which we have in China become TMall in Europe, which means we will serve local brands and local customers in local markets,” J. Michael Evans told a technology conference in Paris.

    “We have started with a pilot project in Spain which we will expand across Europe,” he said.

    Alibaba announced in March it would split into six units and explore fundraising or listings for most of them, following a two-year regulatory crackdown on China’s tech sector.

    Its e-commerce business is to be split, with one side covering Alibaba’s domestic-facing e-commerce marketplaces and the other its overseas e-commerce marketplaces such as Lazada, which serves Southeast Asia, and AliExpress.

    Taobao and TMall are China’s dominant e-commerce marketplaces in China.

    Asked about Alibaba founder Jack Ma, China’s best known entrepreneur who withdrew from public view in late 2020 after giving a speech criticising China’s regulatory system, he said Ma remained Alibaba’s biggest shareholder and still cared very much about the company.

    Ma left mainland China in late 2021 for stints in Japan, Spain, Australia and Thailand, according to photographs, but returned in March a day before Alibaba announced its restructuring. He has not made any public comments during that period.

    “Jack is alive, he is well, he is happy. He is teaching at a university in Tokyo and spending more time in China,” Evans said.

    “He is the largest shareholder at Alibaba. This is his company, he cares as much about this company today as he did when he started it and I expect this to continue for as long as Alibaba and Jack Ma are here.”

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  • Facebook updates enhance reels creation, audience growth, and content monetizing

    Facebook updates enhance reels creation, audience growth, and content monetizing

    Meta is rolling out new updates to Facebook to attract more creators and generate more video content for the platform. While nearly 3 billion people worldwide currently use Facebook, Meta still has to compete with social media giants like TikTok, especially considering its continuous growth among younger generations.

    The latest Facebook updates are designed to simplify the process of creating reels on the platform, provide new features in ProMode to assist creators in expanding their following, offer valuable insights for content creation, and broaden monetization options across the platform.

    Facebook has introduced an Inspiration Hub within the Professional Dashboard to make creating reels easier. This hub brings together popular reels, hashtags, topics, and music to inspire creators in their content production. Additionally, a mobile app update combines audio, music, and text into a unified editing screen, streamlining reel editing process.

    Another aspect Facebook has improved is audience growth. Any Facebook user can switch to Professional Mode and become a creator. ProMode creators can appear in the ‘Creators to Follow’ unit on the feed, increasing their chances of being discovered by more people. Moreover, when ProMode creators comment on public posts, a follow button may appear alongside their name, allowing them to attract new followers through conversations.

    And, of course, if you want to be a creator, you are probably interested in how to monetize your content. The new update lowered some of the monetization eligibility requirements, and creators now need to have garnered 500 followers over the past 30 days to qualify for monetization, compared to the previous requirement of 1,000 followers in 60 days. This trend of expanding income opportunities aligns with YouTube’s recent adjustments.

    Facebook’s objective is clear: to entice more creators to the platform by simplifying content production, enabling monetization, and fostering the growth of followers. Most new updates are available only for users in ProMode, but the company is saying that they hope to bring them more broadly over time.
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  • Spotify owes a $5.4 million fine to the EU

    Spotify owes a $5.4 million fine to the EU

    Spotify is one of the top-choice apps when it comes to music streaming. The company has had a ton of experience and it has just begun to expand its feature-set. Podcasts and ebook support are just two of the new reasons the platform gives you to install it on some of the best phones out there.

    But then it mishandled user data, so the EU had to fine it for $5.4 million.

    The European Union spent a long time arranging the specifics of how companies of all shapes and sizes are to handle user data. We won’t bore you with the specifics, but the requirements are hefty and ranging from where the data should be handled to how it should be stored.

    This, of course, is regarding the type of data that can be associated with an individual in order to recognise them as a person. When not handled correctly, this GDPR data may be used for nasty things like mass marketing or scams, so it is actually an important topic.

    The fine in question comes from the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection and is based on a complaint from way back in 2019. Talk about a blast from the past! It turns out that at one point, Spotify failed to provide customer data upon request, which is part of a user’s rights as per EU regulations.

    But then it gets even better worse: Spotify failed to explain how they were using the data in question, which raised tons of concerns. And for context: this isn’t anything weird for the EU. When a company fails to give a good reason why it needs a certain type of data, a lot of EU citizens will be eager to pursue their rights.

    In addition to the fine, Spotify is expected to present the complete set of requested data to the individual who submitted the complaint — even though at this point years have passed — along with the written process for data handling.

    The Swedish PDA’s investigation concluded on the bright side, as it found that Spotify is doing things properly. That, however, won’t save the company from the aforementioned fine, so Spotify responded with intent to appeal this decision in the future.

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  • Indonesia sharply increases agricultural imports from Vietnam

    Indonesia sharply increases agricultural imports from Vietnam

    So far this year Indonesia has imported 15 times the rice it did from Vietnam last year and nearly triple the coffee due to unfavorable weather.

    According to Vietnam Customs, it has bought US$181 million worth of rice, accounting for 9.5% of Vietnam’s exports this year and jumping from eight to third place in the list of its biggest rice buyers, behind the Philippines and China.

    Indonesia’s coffee imports from Vietnam have been worth over $76 million, up 185%.

    Its vegetables imports rose by 20% at $2.44 million, and seafood imports by 70% to $7.83 million.

    Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture said agricultural imports have shot up due to El Nino, which is causing drought between May and July.

    The government has decided to import two million tons of rice this year.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture said global coffee, rice and seafood outputs are going flat due to El Nino and there is a risk of further decline, which would cause countries to increase stockpiles.

    The El Nino-Southern Oscillation is a recurring climate pattern caused by changes in water temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

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  • Construction steel prices lowest in two months

    Construction steel prices lowest in two months

    Prices of construction steel have dropped by VND200,000 (US$8.50) per ton, the 10th decline in a row, to VND14.5 million, the lowest rate in the last two months.

    Companies like Hoa Phat, Viet Y, Viet Duc, and Viet Nhat have cur prices by a cumulative VND1.5 million per ton since early April.

    The Vietnam Steel Association attributed the lower prices to weak demand.

    However, the price reduction has helped boost production and demand in the last two months. Over 812,000 tons of construction steel were produced in May, up 14% from April, while 927,000 tons of the product were sold, up 26%, the highest growth rate since the beginning of this year, according to the association.

    Hoa Phat Group, which holds one-third of Vietnam’s construction steel market share, said it sold 530,000 tons of steel of all kinds in May, up 16% against April. Specifically, it sold 284,000 tons of construction steel, up 33%.

    Steelmakers said they experienced hardship in the second half of last year, saw improved performance in the first quarter of this year, and would make profits in the second quarter.

    However, VNDirect Securities Corporation said steel demand would remain weak throughout 2023.

    Total sales of construction steel and galvanized steel are likely to decrease by 9.2% and 7% this year to 9.5 million tons and 3.9 million tons, respectively, it predicted.

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  • China’s biggest automaker SAIC eyes sales of 100,000 units in Vietnam

    China’s biggest automaker SAIC eyes sales of 100,000 units in Vietnam

    China’s biggest auto brand SAIC Motor will build a factory in Vietnam next year and hopes to achieve sales of 100,000 units a year within five years.

    “With 100,000 cars sold a year, SAIC can be the third biggest auto company in Vietnam,” SAIC Vietnam director of business and marketing, Tran Nam Thang, said.

    SAIC Vietnam is a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned company Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation.

    It also plans to start selling MG cars in Vietnam in July, taking it over from Malaysian distributor Tanchong.

    SAIC owns MG, originally a U.K. company.

    The goal of selling 100,000 cars a year is considered bold, given that Toyota, the biggest player in Vietnam, sold only 91,000 vehicles last year, followed by Hyundai with 81,000 units.

    Last year only around 4,300 MG cars were sold in Vietnam.

    Selling more than one brand will be a key strategy to achieve this goal.

    “The plan to build a factory in Vietnam will help reach the goal,” Thang said.

    “SAIC owns many brands and can develop its products quickly to meet a range of demands.”

    The company is considering locating the plant in the north and completing it by 2025. It will not just manufacture cars for the Vietnam market but also for other Southeast Asian countries.

    SAIC is the third Chinese company to announce plans to build a plant in Vietnam after BYD and Chery.

    The latter plans to sell its first cars in the country by the end of this year.

    SAIC sold 5.3 million cars last year and has been the biggest auto company in China for 17 years.

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  • Bamboo Airways’ accumulated loss bigger than Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet

    Bamboo Airways’ accumulated loss bigger than Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet

    Bamboo Airways posted an accumulated loss of VND3.2 trillion ($136 million) last year, higher than that of Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet.

    Although the company saw revenue tripling to VND11.73 trillion, costs still exceeded that figure due to difficulties in the Northeast Asia market and the Russia-Ukraine conflicts, which drove up fuel expenses, according to the company’s financial disclosure.

    Other airlines also posted accumulated loses last year. Vietnam Airlines lost VND2.64 trillion, an improvement from VND10 trillion recorded in 2021, thanks to revenues recovering to 70% of pre-pandemic levels.

    Vietjet posted an accumulated loss of VND1.99 trillion last year. Bamboo Airways leaders, however, are optimistic about the future of the company.

    Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Trong said that the airline nearly reached its breakeven point in the first quarter as its fleet of 30 aircraft operated at full capacity.

    Bamboo Airways is set to post profit in 2025, he added. The airline targets a growth rate of 15-20% this year. It is considering plans to expand its fleet and routes and increase occupancy.

    New routes are being considered to Europe, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia.

    The airline is seeking the government’s permission to increase its fleet size to more than 30.

    Bamboo Airways is set to select a new board of directors for the 2023-2028 period on June 21.

    The five directors of Bamboo Airways have asked to resign, and the airline will select a new board of seven directors at the upcoming general meeting.

  • Avaloq Partners With World’s Largest Asset Manager

    Avaloq Partners With World’s Largest Asset Manager

    Swiss banking software maker Avaloq is partnering with Blackrock. Together, the companies aim to make their services available to private banks and wealth managers.

    According to a joint announcement Wednesday, Avaloq and Blackrock are entering into a strategic partnership. Furthermore, Blackrock has acquired a minority stake in Avaloq. Details of the Deal were not disclosed.

    Under the agreement, Avaloq’s software will dock onto Blackrock’s investment engine Aladdin, with the aim of giving private banks and wealth managers access to comprehensive end-to-end technology and investment solutions, it said.

    Streamline Processes

    Avaloq’s leading core banking is used by institutions with a total of approximately $4 trillion in assets under management and will now be linked to Blackrock’s, Aladdin.

    This partnership will help us empower our clients to streamline processes, enhance risk analytics, and make more informed portfolio decisions, ultimately delivering greater value to their clients, Avaloq’s Co-CEO Martin Greweldinger,  said.

    With the Avaloq partnership, Blackrock will gain access to the core banking IT system which is widely used in Europe and Asia. At the same time Avaloq can benefit from Blackrock’s platform, which collects data from all accessible investments and is used to calculate the risk of around 10 percent of all assets under management in the world. In Switzerland, users include UBS.

    BlackRock and Avaloq joining forces will help clients reduce the complexity and friction inherent in many of today’s digital transformations. Our combined offering will make it extremely convenient for clients to implement and adopt Aladdin Wealth’s industry-leading capabilities as it will be deeply integrated with Avaloq’s core banking solutions, Venu Krishnamurthy, Global Head of Aladdin Wealth Tech, said.

    With the new offering, the two partners want to appeal to both new customers and existing users of Aladdin and the Avaloq software, they said. The joint solution, which will be sourced from the data cloud as a pure «software as a service» offering, is currently being implemented into two of Avaloq’s customers.

    The combined offer also meets Swiss data protection requirements, the statment said, adding that Aladdin Wealth anonymizes the client portfolios that the technology creates on behalf of third parties.

    For Avaloq in particular, the collaboration with the US giant is the first of a new slate of offerings the company is working on under the wing of its parent company NEC.

    Avaloq no longer sees itself as a mere software supplier, but increasingly as a coordinating force that orchestrates emerging digital ecosystems in finance.

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  • Rumor in China says the U.S. will allow Qualcomm to ship 5G chips to Huawei

    Rumor in China says the U.S. will allow Qualcomm to ship 5G chips to Huawei

    Huawei consumer chief Yu Chengdong (you might know him by his Americanized name of Richard Yu) denies that the company is getting access to 5G Snapdragon chips. He calls reports that the U.S. is easing chip restrictions on Huawei inaccurate which means that unless the manufacturer releases some official news, the upcoming Mate 60 line will still be forced to use a Snapdragon chipset tweaked to work with 4G and not 5G.
    Could Huawei regain the ability to use 5G chipsets on its phones? In 2020, exactly one year to the day that the U.S. placed the company on the Entity List preventing it from accessing its U.S. supply chain, the U.S. expanded its export rules. Chip foundries using American technology to manufacture chips were not allowed to send cutting-edge silicon to Huawei. With its recent flagship models, Huawei has used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips tweaked so they do not work with 5G signals.
    For example, last year’s Mate 50 line and this year’s P60 series were powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 although to receive 5G signals, users could purchase a specific case that supported those signals. But this all could be changing according to Huawei Central. Industry sources are saying that the U.S. has loosened its export rules to allow Qualcomm to ship 5G chips to Huawei.
    But it is all speculation until there is an official announcement from the U.S. or Huawei. Still, back in January, Qualcomm’s President, of Technology Licensing (QTL) & Global Affairs, Alex Rogers, said that the U.S. hasn’t stopped Qualcomm from selling chips to Huawei. Rogers stated, “So I don’t think it’s fair to characterize it as the latest restrictions on Huawei. What we’ve seen in our news reports the effect that Commerce is considering not issuing new licenses outweighs. And we haven’t heard anything from Commerce itself” (italics added).
    Huawei released an amazing phone last year in the Mate 50 Pro, and being limited to 4G connectivity (unless you bought the 5G case) didn’t seem to hinder sales inside China where long lines and sellouts greeted the device. Now back to its old schedule of releasing two flagship models a year (the photography-focused P series is launched in the first quarter followed by the technologically advanced Mate series in the fourth quarter), the Mate 60 line is expected to be released later in 2023.
    If the U.S. does allow Huawei to use 5G chips for the Mate 60 series, the manufacturer’s domestic rivals might sweat a little. After all, China is still the largest smartphone market in the world, and after showing that it can still make solid flagship phones even with U.S. restrictions, having one of those restrictions eased will only make Huawei more dangerous in its home market.
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  • The Apple Watch Ultra gets an automatic “eye-saving” feature in watchOS 10

    The Apple Watch Ultra gets an automatic “eye-saving” feature in watchOS 10

    The watchOS 10 update will bring widgets to the Apple Watch that will be controlled via the timepiece’s Digital Crown. And with Smart Stack, Apple Watch widgets will bundle together based on the user’s typical schedule. For example, when the Apple Watch user gets up first thing in the morning, the weather widget will be on the top of the stack. The calendar widget could be on the top of the stack when a previously recorded appointment is drawing near.

    Another cool feature that watchOS 10 will bring to the premium Apple Watch Ultra is Auto Night Mode. Using the ambient light sensor, the watch will know when light levels are low enough to automatically warrant turning on Night Mode. In Night Mode, the Apple Watch Ultra removes the blue light that negatively affects your eyes by straining them and turns the entire interface red and black to make it more visible at night and less irritating to your eyes.

    The Night Mode currently is enabled manually by swiping to Apple Watch Ultra’s Wayfinder screen which shows elevations, location coordinates, and more. With the Wayfinder face on the watch, turn the Digital Crown to turn on Night Mode and turn it the other way to turn it off. Again, with watchOS 10, the Apple Watch Ultra will use ambient light sensors to automatically determine whether to activate the feature.
    It is important to note that the Night Mode feature works only with the Wayfinder watch face on the Apple Watch Ultra so if you plan on using Night Mode manually or automatically, you are going to need to have this watch face selected for the timepiece. It isn’t known whether having Auto Night Mode enabled will be the default setting for watchOS 10 on the Apple Watch Ultra although it probably should be. That’s because enabling Night Mode in watchOS 10 on Apple’s premium smartwatch might be more of a pain since spinning the Digital Crown in that build will control the new widgets.
    To make things easier, Apple Watch Ultra users will probably want to ensure that Night Mode using the Wayfinder face is enabled if it isn’t activated by watchOS 10.
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  • Portable power stations sought after amid load shedding

    Portable power stations sought after amid load shedding

    Portable power stations have become sought-after items in northern Vietnam as unpredictable power cuts urged residents to store electricity in advance.

    Quang Minh in Hai Phong has been looking to buy a portable power station for his household, which has been experiencing load shedding of up to several hours at a time in recent weeks.

    The product that he plans to buy is made in China and sold at VND2.3 million (US$98). It can be used for many devices his family use regularly such as Wi-Fi routers, fans, rice cookers, and lamps.

    In contrast to power generators, the portable stations operate without noise and can be easily operated by both adults and children, he said.

    Users say that a station can meet a household’s basic requirement within a day.

    Vu Xuan Tung, an electronic store owner in Hanoi, said that in the past portable power stations are only bought campers, but recently many people buy them as a backup power source in case of power cuts.

    His store has been running out of power stations recently and sometimes customers have to order up to seven days in advance.

    Most stations are made in China, including some that are advertised to have a German brand. Their prices are around several million Vietnamese dong. Some high-end products can be priced more than VND10 million.

    A Facebook group of 10,000 members, which often sold battery-powered fans in the past, has changed its focus to portable power stations in recent weeks.

    Group admin Vien Duong said that power stations can be used for many devices, not just a fan, and therefore is preferred amid power cuts.

    A survey of nearly 400 readers on June 12-13 showed that around 53% were looking into buying a portable power station, while 7% had bought one.

    Northern Vientam has been experiencing frequent load shedding these days as hydropower plants were shut down due to low water levels.

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  • Bitcoin Suisse’s Profits Crash Amid Crypto Slump

    Bitcoin Suisse’s Profits Crash Amid Crypto Slump

    Bitcoin Suisse saw profits plunge in 2022, making it all the more urgent for the crypto start-up to restructure its business model. At the same time, it is bringing on prominent people to its board of directors as it sets the path to become an institution.

    Bitcoin Suisse’s operating income fell to 37 million Swiss francs from 84 million Swiss francs in 2022 from the previous year, its CEO Dirk Klee, said in an interview with finews.com, adding that trading collapsed in the face of various scandals in the crypto industry.

    The market correction also impacted Bitcoin Suisse own holdings, deposited across trading centers worldwide, which fell by around 23 million Swiss francs. «Proprietary trading» category is not proprietary trading in the conventional sense, but rather corresponds to current assets used for operational business, Klee said.

    Although the setback was also due to the large drops in the value of altcoins (alternative digital assets), Bitcoin Suisse will continue to maintain these holdings, Klee said. Admitting these were not «pretty numbers,» for Klee they show the volatility in crypto brokerage.

    Furthermore, the company can stomach the results which were expected due to the market situation. Bitcoin Suisse continues to be solidly financed and «very well prepared» for a possible upturn in the crypto industry, he added.

    Bitcoin Suisse has had to cut one in four jobs at the company since the end of 2021. Overall, the headcount has fallen from over 300 to around 220 full-time positions during this period. A major round of layoffs occurred last January, but Klee says that some measures were cushioned by natural employee turnover.

    The recent market turmoil that followed the lawsuits filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against leading crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase has even led to many inquiries from customers, Klee said. «We expect that the turmoil could prove positive for solid and Swiss-based providers like us,» he added.

    Philipp Roesler, the former leader of the German Free Democratic Party (FDP), who also served as a finance minister and vice chancellor under Angela Merkel, is joining Bitcoin Suisse’s board of directors according to Klee.

    The crypto company is hoping to gain from Roesler’s international network. The 50-year-old former politician, who lives in Zurich, has a strong affinity for crypto and is active in Switzerland’s crypto scene, Klee said.

    Marco Menotti, worked for 15 years at UBS, before moving to the Swiss stock exchange SIX’s executive board in 2018. He left SIX in mid-2022 to pursue various mandates at smaller companies.

    Both Roesler and Menotti will stand for election at the annual general meeting on June 29. The Zug-based crypto broker has undoubtedly scored a coup with Roesler’s candidacy on Bitcoin Suisse’s board. However, Roesler’s candidacy is not about gathering celebrities on the board of directors – but about helping the crypto startup on its way to becoming an institution, Klee said.

    Furthermore, Roger Studer is leaving the board after a three-year term to concentrate on various other mandates. Studer headed investment banking at Zurich-based Vontobel and led a financing round for Bitcoin Suisse as an investor in 2020, before becoming an entrepreneur.

    Bitcoin Suisse is currently preparing to apply for a Swiss banking license after withdrawing its previous application in 2021. Part of these preparations include the commissioning of a crypto-compatible core banking system and strengthening of governance and compliance, Klee told finews.com

    Bitcoin Suisse, which has had a strong trading focus, is aiming to position itself as an asset manager going forward. A shift that could also result in more steady earnings.
    Staking, a service whereby the entity – in this case, Bitcoin Suisse – holds tokens and coins to validate blockchain transactions and gives customers token rewards in return, is also in focus.

    The Zug-based company says it is already among the five largest providers worldwide of staking services.

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  • Vietnam lacks a million tons of coal for power production

    Vietnam lacks a million tons of coal for power production

    Thermal power plants in northern Vietnam are short of over one million tons of coal for power production for this and next month, which could intensify electricity shortage in the region.

    Vietnam’s main coal suppliers Vinacomin and Dong Bac Corp were obliged to provide 4.39 million tons to utility firm Vietnam Electricity (EVN) for power production in June and July, but so far they are 1.64 million tons short.

    Since a unit of EVN has been able to purchase 600,000 tons from other sources, the amount of coal needed for EVN to operate its thermal power plants is 600,000 tons this month and 400,000 next.

    This amount is even more necessary since hydropower plants in the north are at record low water levels, which means thermal power plants will need to run at full capacity, EVN CEO Tran Dinh Nhat said at a meeting on June 12.

    The Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently said that five major hydropower plants in the north were shut down this month, creating a shortage of 5,000 megawatts of power for northern Vietnam.

    Water levels will likely remain low in the next 10 days, according to weather forecasts.

    Load shedding has been frequent in different northern areas in the last several weeks, disrupting daily life and manufacturing.

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