Largest ethanol plant in Vietnam faces financial problems

Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to work with other agencies to save the Dai Tan ethanol plant in the central province of Quang Nam. Dai Tan, with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons of biofuel a year, is the largest ethanol facility in Vietnam and is one of the three largest in Southeast Asia. The plant stopped operations in June 2012 due to financial problems. The company’s debt to Vietnam and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank), the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), and farmers, has reached VND100 billion (US$4.9 million).
 
According to Luu Quang Thai, chairman of the plant operator Dong Xanh JSC, the most serious of the total debt is that owed to cassava agents who are under pressure from local farmers. He said that the plant also owes four months pay to its workers, totaling more than VND4 billion (US$192,000). Thai added that the company has offered a big investor to restructure the ethanol plant. The investor has acquired a 70% stake in the facility. (February 1, 2013)