Marubeni seeks offshore wind power, green industrial park investment in northern Vietnam

Vietnam’s northern province of Thai Binh is working to facilitate Japanese giant Marubeni’s offshore wind power and green industrial park projects, said Thai Binh Chairman Nguyen Khac Than.

The provincial leader made the statement at a Wednesday meeting with representatives from a joint venture between Marubeni and its Vietnamese partner T&T Group.

Japanese businesses play a crucial part in Thai Binh’s development, with investments of $2 billion so far, he added.

Offshore wind power

For the offshore wind power project, Marubeni said it is deploying feasibility studies in the province and is willing to make the investment as soon as the Vietnamese government approves the relevant legal framework.

In August 2022, a joint venture between T&T Group and Denmark’s Orsted unveiled an offshore wind power proposal in Thai Binh province. The 1,000 MW project, with an investment of $2.5 billion, was set to generate 3.5 billion of kWh annually, starting 2030.

However, in June 2023, Orsted said it had "paused market development activities in Vietnam", noting that Vietnam is still "an important supplier market".

Green industrial park

Regarding its green industrial park project, Marubeni noted that per Thai Binh province’s 2021-2030 master plan, the Japanese firm aims to develop a green facility. It also plans to supply green energy and rooftop solar power to businesses inside the industrial park.

Thai Binh has 10 industrial parks and 49 industrial clusters, covering 3,000 hectares in total. Per the master plan, the province wants to build 13 more covering 3,574 hectares, including those specializing in biology-pharmaceuticals, tourism-service-seaport-industry, and logistics-urban area-industry.

Thai Binh is planning to make industry-construction its driving economic force, accounting for 62.1% of its economy in 2030.