The Vietnam Cement Corporation (VNCC), the main cement producer in Vietnam, will import between 1-1.3Mt of clinker this year in order to ensure sufficient material for its production, a source from the corporation has said.  
 
VNCC itself plans to produce 9.15Mt of clinker and 13.05Mt of cement in the year, up 5% and 2.3% against 2005.  
 
It is now storing 1.4Mt of cement to meet the high demand during the construction season that stretches throughout the first half of this year.  
 
Last year, VNCC produced more than 8.67Mt of clinker and 12.7Mt of cement. Its sales outputs were 185,000t and 12.75Mt, respectively. All these figures were reported to well surpass its initial targets.  
 
In the year, the corporation earned total revenue of VND13.3 trillion ($842m), and profit of VND538bn ($34m) and paid VND960bn ($60.8m) to the State budget.  
 
Figures show that Vietnam’s demand for cement will increase from 29.5Mt last year to 36.5Mt in 2007, while the supply will go up from 22.5Mt in 2005 to 35.3Mt in 2007.