Fast-rising economies in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Vietnam have taken different strategies in handling rising coal demand in the region.

Vietnam has announced that it will calibrate its exports to meet increasing coal demand in the domestic markets. Indonesia, on the other hand, plans to increase exports and meet rising demand in the Asia-Pacific Region.

The International Energy Agency report published on Dec. 13 indicated that there is a 2.8 percent projected increase each year to 2016 or about 6.18 billion metric tons in coal requirements in the next four years.

The Indonesian Coal Mining Association said Jakarta is expected to upgrade its output in 2012 to no less than as 390 million tons of the fuel in 2012 to satisfy demand from Asian buyers, particularly India and China.

A related Bloomberg report said the country is estimated to mine 360 million tons this year. Indonesia is still the world's largest thermal coal exporter.

Vietnam, on the other hand, decided to cut down its coal exports and be a net importer to support the growing local industries, Vietnam's state-owned coal exporter Vinacomin chairman Tran Xuan Hoa said in an annual coal exports report this month.

State-run Vietnam News Agency reported quoting Vinacomin late Thursday said coal exports will be slashed by 19.6 percent to 13.3 million metric tons in 2012 from 16.8 million MT this year.

Vietnam's coal exports will gradually be slashed to 8 million MT in 2013 and between 4 million metric tons and 5 million metric tons from 2015, said Vinacomin.

China, South Korea,India, and Japan are the main destinations of Vietnamese and Indonesian coal.