Vietnam produced 1.91 million mt of crude steel in November, rising 0.6% from October and 6.7% from a year earlier, although this was accompanied by a contraction in construction steel sales volumes, according to data from the Vietnam Steel Association.

            Construction steel sales contracted 26.1% on the month and by 31.2% from a year earlier to 872,846 mt, against 1.09 million mt produced during the month.

            Although COVID-related issues started to ease from October after the three-month lockdown imposed in Vietnam's major cities from July through September, construction works still faced issues such as worker shortages and various COVID-related restrictions, market sources said.

            For the first 11 months of 2021, total crude steel production tallied at 21.59 million mt, up 20% from the same period in 2020.

            Steel sales volume during this period similarly expanded 19.0% to 21.17 million mt, of which exports made up 2.14 million mt, although this was down 8.0%.

            Construction steel amounted to a total production of 11.35 million mt, growing 3.9% year on year, while sales contracted 2.6% to 10.88 million mt.

            Sales in its northern regions contracted the most, by 11.4% to 4.54 million mt, while sales in the south were down 9.4% to 3.28 million mt.

            Contrastingly, sales in central regions expanded by 17.5% to 1.04 million mt, while exports were up 31.4% to 2.03 million mt.

            In terms of producers’ market share for construction steel sales, Hoa Phat was the largest at 32.5%, followed by VN Steel at 12.6%, and Formosa Ha Tinh at 6.7%.

            Looking ahead, although the VSA expected Q4 to remain slow, given subdued domestic demand, it saw some positive signs in terms of the resumption of civil works and infrastructure investments.

------ Steel Business Briefing