According to Vietnam’s customs data, country’s steel exports have started 2019 on a strong note with a total of 771,056 tonnes of steel products shipped out in January, registering a 74% spike year on year basis amid higher shipments to Cambodia.
The steel exports to Cambodia in Jan’19 have increased to 160,775 tonnes, registering a hike of 56% y-o-y basis. Cambodia has become one of the key markets for Vietnam to export steel products as the former’s construction sector is booming and while there are many steel suppliers in Cambodia, imported steel from Vietnam looks to have greater potential due to its cost as well as the transport cost compared to the steel imported from other countries like Thailand.
As per one market participant, Cambodia mostly imports longs steel products from Vietnam. Emerging markets like Cambodia and Myanmar are really full of potential and that the sharp increase in exports could be partly attributed to recent ramping up of steel capacity in Vietnam.
Vietnamese steel company, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp has fired up a second blast furnace on May 18, 2018, and has doubled its crude steel production capacity to 7 MnT.
Following Cambodia, is Indonesia with steel imports of 91,712 tonnes from Vietnam, a surge of 37% y-o-y basis and then comes U.S. with Vietnamese steel imports of 83,463 tonnes, a y-o-y rise of 69%.
Apart from these top three steel importing countries, others like Philippines tripled its import from 15,353 tonnes in Jan’18 to 51,772 tonnes in Han’19. Another destination was Thailand with 68,469 tonnes, more than double the 30,483 tonnes a year earlier. In 2018, Vietnam’s total steel exports stood at 6.26 MnT, registering a surge of 33% against 2017.
In the case of imports, Vietnam’s for Jan’19 dipped slightly to 1.15 MnT versus 1.16 MnT in Jan’18 as shipments from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan fell. The country’s total imports in 2018 stood at 13.5 MnT, down by 10% y-o-y basis.
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