Steel exported worldwide from Vietnam in January soared by 98.8% on year to total 967,913 tonnes, thanks largely to aggressive purchasing by China, currently the largest buyer of Vietnamese steel.
Statistics from the general Department of Vietnam Customs show that last month, Vietnam exported 203,171 tonnes of steel to China, up 78.9% on year, with the next largest purchasers being other ASEAN partners Cambodia, Thailand and Philippines.
Steel demand in China has been strong since last March as the economy began recovering from the coronavirus contagion, and Vietnam – China’s southern neighbour – had the advantage of close geographic proximity to conveniently supply.
“Vietnamese mills are offering prices of billet and wire rod on a daily basis (to Chinese buyers),” a steel trader based in Hong Kong observed, noting the active steel trading between the two countries. Over February 17-22, China imported over 200,000 tonnes of billets, with the bulk of it being Vietnamese in origin, as Mysteel Global reported.
At the same time, that doubling of Vietnamese steel exports globally last month was also achieved thanks to its higher steel capacity and output, according to a market insider based in Shanghai.
In January for example, Hoa Phat Group, a leading steel producer of Vietnam, commissioned a fourth blast furnace at its Dung Quat Iron & Steel Integrated Complex (Dung Quat Steel) in Central Vietnam.
With all four blast furnaces in operation, Dung Quat Steel’s maximum crude steel output has reached around 5 million tonnes/year and takes the group’s total crude steel capacity to some 8 million t/y, as Mysteel Global reported.
“We’ve been hearing that the Vietnamese steel mills have been producing at full swing (so far this year),” the Shanghai source said.
But it’s not just Vietnam’s steel exports that enjoyed a boom in January. The country’s steel imports also saw a 28.3% on-year jump to 1.22 million tonnes last month, the Customs data show, with tonnage from China increasing by 196.4% on year to 510,700 tonnes. China is now Vietnam’s fourth largest steel supplier after India, Japan and South Korea.
Written by Olivia Zhang, zhangwd@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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