Actions taken by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to stabilize fuel, oil and steel markets will be scrutinized by the government inspectorate next year.

Sumitomo Corp., Japan’s third- largest trading house, will build a 200 billion yen (US$2.2 billion) low-emission coal power plant in Vietnam as part of its plans to expand overseas.

The plant in southern Vietnam’s Khanh Hoa province will have 1,320 megawatt capacity and start operating in 2015, Sumitomo said in a statement on its Web site. The so-called super-critical plant will be designed to increase the amount of power generated per unit of coal, thereby lowering emissions.

Sumitomo is partnering with Hanoi Investment Industrial Construction Joint Stock Co. for construction, Katsuhiko Onishi, a spokesman at Sumitomo, said Tuesday by telephone. The financing structure has yet to be decided, he said.

Sumitomo aims to increase generation capacity to 6.3 gigawatts by 2011 by acquiring stakes and building plants in Asia, the U.S. and the Middle East. It wants to tap electricity demand growth, especially in developing countries where consumption is set to rise in line with economic expansion.

Sumitomo will receive a 25-year contract to supply power, the release said. The company said in August it would buy a thermal power plant in the U.S. for about 14 billion yen. In January, Sumitomo said it will spend 200 billion yen to double the capacity of a coal-fired power-plant in Indonesia.

Source: thanhniennews.com