Vietnam's Steel Production Expected to Grow by 6-8% in CY20

Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) forecasts the country's steel production to grow at about 6-8% in CY20.

The association said that global steel market in CY19 was slow and it was expected that steel production would not improve in the Q1 CY20.

The crude steel in CY20 is estimated at nearly 18 MnT and hot-rolled steel output is estimated at 17.1 MnT. It is also expected that the country would have to import some raw materials such as iron ore (nearly 17 MnT), scrap steel (about 5 MnT) and hot-rolled steel coil (5 MnT) in CY20.

Globally, capacity growth may exceed demand growth, leading to shrinking exports and profit.

Further, several proposed steel projects in ASEAN would lead to an oversupply and it would take about 20 years for ASEAN steel consumption to catch up with this capacity, the association said.

Vietnam's crude steel production and sales in Dec'19 reached nearly 1.3 MnT, registering an increase of 3.2% M-o-M over previous month and 1.1% Y-o-Y over the same period in CY18.

Crude steel consumption in the country increased by 9.4% M-o-M to over 1.4 MnT, up 13.4% Y-o-Y.