A steel plant in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. (Photo: VNA) In November alone, production of finished steel reached over 1.82 milliontonnes, down 11% month-on-month and 37% year-on-year while consumption ofall kinds of steel hit above 1.94 million tonnes, up 3%month-on-month but down 16.2% year-on-year.
In the 11-month period, finished steel production saw a yearly decline of11.3% to 27.12 million tonnes. Sales of finished steel also plunged 7%year-on-year to 25.1 million tonnes, according to the report.
In terms of exports, 6.99 million tonnes of steel were shipped abroad in thepast 10 months, earning a turnover of more than $6.94 billion. These figuresmarked significant yearly decreases of 57% in volume and 29% invalue.
Among the main export markets of Vietnamese steel, the ASEAN bloc,accounted for 42.2% of the total, the EU (16.92%), the US (7.71%), the Republicof Korea (5.9%) and Hong Kong (5.67%).
In a 10-month period, Vietnam also imported about 9.76 million tonnesof steel with a value of more than 10.29 billion USD, down 8.4% in volumebut up 7% in value over the same period of last year. Major steel suppliers to Vietnam were mainland China, Japan, the RoK,Taiwan (China) and India.
VnEconomy cited Vietnam Steel Corporation as saying thatdomestic demand for steel remained low. Sluggish consumptionand high inventories caused factories to reduce their productioncapacities or halt production.
According to the company, the prospect of recovering global steel demandcontinued to face difficulties when inflation was high. Moreover, theimplementation of tight monetary policy in many countries would affect theprospect of world economic recovery in December.
Meanwhile, the domestic market had not shown any clear signs of recoveryand the real estate market faced many challenges.That would have a great influence on the steel consumption.
All businesses were looking for ways to restore output and improve profitresults in the last month of 2022, resulting in fiercer competitionamong factories and pushing up the selling prices of steel.
In the recent report on the prospects of the steel industry, RongVietSecurities Corp also said that the sector had little chance to recover in2023 due to weak consumption, the pressure of the exchange rateand interest rate on financial costs.
In 2023, the Government would foster investment in infrastructure projectswith the goal of ensuring economic growth that could support domestic steeldemand, especially for construction steel.
However, the real estate industry which might not recover after a gloomyyear could not help domestic steel demand rebound next year, expertshave said./.
VNA
