Steel firms seeing optimistic growth

Local steel firms are receiving positive results during the first half of this year compared to last year’s performance

In the first six months of this year, the steel sector turned out over 8.5 million tonnes of product, a 35.7 per cent jump on-year. Over eight million tonnes were sold, up 39 per cent on-year, of which more than one million tonnes were exported.

Chairman of Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) Ho Nghia Dung attributed the sector’s upbeat performance to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s imposition of temporary safeguard duties on imported steel billet and long-steel products. This helped to back up local firms’ production and sales in the year’s second quarter.

Nam Kim Steel JSC, based in the southern province of Binh Duong and one of the country’s leading steel makers, reported VND200 billion ($9 million) in profit in the year’s first half and sold 346,000 tonnes of product.

This outcome is remarkable compared to the company’s performance last year. Nam Kim Steel sold a total 423,000 tonnes of product last year and reaped only VND126 billion ($5.7 million) in post-tax profit.

According to Nam Kim’s general director Pham Manh Hung, the company has a lot of advantages when exporting to Malaysia as its export products do not incur anti-dumping tariffs when entering the Malaysian market.

In early 2016, Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Ministry announced its decision to impose anti-dumping tariffs on imported coated steel products.

Nam Kim coated steel products incur an anti-dumping duty of just 0.06 per cent, and according to the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations, it is not an anti-dumping case if the duty was set below two per cent.

This will be an advantage for Nam Kim when exporting to Malaysia during the 2016-2021 period.

In another case, state-owned Vietnam Steel Corporation (VNSteel) reported a 22 per cent jump in steel billet production in the first half of the year, and a sale volume hike of 7 per cent on-year, to 314,000 tonnes.

Its construction steel production reached 1.6 million tonnes, up 23 per cent, and sales volume surpassed one million tonnes.

The parent company reported VND105 billion ($4.7 million) in pre-tax profit during the period while its subsidiary companies touched VND339 billion ($15.4 million).

Private steel giant Hoa Phat Group gained VND1.85 trillion ($84.4 million) in post-tax profit in the first six months, reaching 58 per cent of the year’s projection. Of this sum, VND1.28 trillion ($58.4 million) came from the construction steel business.

During the period, Hoa Phat exported more than 8,000 tonnes, equal to 10 per cent of the group’s total steel sale volume, with a stable month-on-month growth in the export value to ASEAN markets.