The 600,000 mt/year plant in Lam Dong province is expected to undergo at least three months of trial runs before commercial production, the source said earlier.

All of the plant”s output is to be exported. Marubeni of Japan has agreed to market about 150,000 mt/year of the plant”s alumina in a multi-year contract. Vinacomin also plans to ink yearly contracts with other customers, and is hoping its material will find outlets in China, Malaysia and the Middle East, the source said earlier. Discussions with direct term contract customers have been put on hold pending the plant”s commissioning, he said.

The alumina shipments will be made via the Go Dau river port in Dong Nai province, switching after 2015 to the yet-to-be-constructed Ke Ga deepwater port in Binh Thuan province.