Hoa Phat's steel production at its facility in Dung Quat, Quang Ngai. (Photo: VNA)The imports will include around 4 million tonnes of iron ore, 3.5 million tonnes of coal of different types and 145,000 cows.
The group’s imports of machines, equipment, and materials for production reportedly hit nearly 2 billion USD last year. Of the total, some 35 percent, or 700 million USD, came from Australia, also over double the figure from 2019 and making the industrial manufacturer the largest Vietnamese client of the country.
More than half of the total import value, or 364 million USD, came from coal, compared to just 115 million USD in 2019.
The group’s purchases of iron ore leapt a whopping 19-times to 123 million USD in the first eleven months of 2020.
Hoa Phat bought more coal and iron ore last year to serve production at its iron and steel integrated complexes in the northern province of Hai Duong and the central province of Quang Ngai’s Dung Quat Economic Zone.
Meanwhile, it annually purchases hundreds of thousands of cows from Australia, with its herd accounting for 50 percent of all Australian-imported cows in Vietnam.
With such soaring import numbers, Hoa Phat was estimated to account for 17 percent of Australia’s total export value to Vietnam in 2020, compared to 7.4 percent in 2018 and 7.6 percent in 2019.
According to Global Trade Atlas, Australia’s exports to Vietnam reached 4.4 billion USD in 2020, 16 percent of which was imported by Hoa Phat.
Last year, the group’s exports exceeded 1 billion USD, including 966 million USD worth of high-quality and construction steel./.
VNA
