Steel production sees strong growth in October
Steel production in October continued to enjoy a sharp year-on-year increase after Vietnam applied safeguard measures against steel bar and steel billet imports.
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According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the output of crude steel in the month was 468,000 tonnes, up 26.5% over the same period last year, while that of flat steel was 488,000 tonnes, a rise of 30.4% year on year and steel bars and angle steel was 397,000 tonnes, an increase of 1.5%.
The October figures brought the total outputs of crude steel to 4.2 million tonnes, flat steel to 4.3 million tonnes and angle steel to 3.9 million tonnes.
The MoIT’s Department of Planning said, along with opportunities offered by trade safeguard measures, the sector is enjoying high domestic demand for steel bars.
The growth in production and sales of steels in the past 10 months showed the supply ability of domestic producers, the department said, adding that the prices of steel products remained stable.
A report of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) showed that its member firms produced 1.48 million tonnes in October, up 18.6% year on year, while their sales reached 1.2 million tonnes, a rise of over 23%.
However, VSA Vice President Nguyen Van Sua warned of challenges ahead as cheap steels from China would continue to float the domestic market.
The total volume of finished steel products imported from China since the beginning of the year has exceeded 7.29 million tonnes worth US$2.86 billion, accounting for nearly 60% of Vietnam’s total imported steels and 56% of import value.
Sua also mentioned suspect cases of Chinese steel exported abroad under the trademarks Vietnamese steels, which may harm the prestige of Vietnam’s products.
On its part, the MoIT pledged to continue the trade safeguard measures to ensure the fair competition between domestic and imported products, while keeping a close watch on the impacts of the measures for timely adjustments.
