Các tập đoàn lỗ hàng nghìn tỷ trong 6 tháng 2008

Các tập đoàn lỗ hàng nghìn tỷ trong 6 tháng 2008

Vietnam May Raise Electricity, Steel Prices This Year (Update2)

By Van Nguyen

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam, which last month posted its fastest inflation in 16 years, said it may raise prices of fuel, electricity and steel, revising a statement saying it would cap prices this year.

Bui Xuan Khu, deputy minister for trade and industry, had said Vietnam wouldn''t raise prices for essential products, which include coal and fertilizer, according to the statement first posted on the government''s Web site July 8. The remarks were removed from the statement late yesterday.

Khu spoke in a conference call of business and government leaders to discuss the industrial outlook for the year. Company officials on the call asked the government to allow them to raise prices amid soaring costs for commodities, the Saigon Times reported yesterday.

The move could help calm concern that state-owned enterprises may post losses because of price controls and spiraling inflation. Consumer prices accelerated 26.8 percent from a year earlier in June, the fastest rate since 1992.

Petrolimex International Trading Joint-Stock Co., a state- owned company that trades agricultural and industrial commodities, reported a loss of more than 1.8 trillion dong ($107 million) because of price controls in the first half, the Saigon Times said, citing General Director Bui Ngoc Bao. The company faced a 46 percent increase in import costs in the six-month period, Bao was quoted as saying.

Electricity of Vietnam, the state-owned utility known as EVN, lost at least 2.1 trillion dong in the first half, the paper said, citing Chief Executive Pham Le Thanh.

To contact the reporter on this story: Van Nguyen in Ho Chi Minh City at vnguyen23@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 10, 2008 05:07 EDT