The Ministry of Industry (MoIT) will continue to support local steel enterprises this year in their production and business, especially use of trade defence measures protecting the domestic steel industry.

The domestic steel industry in 2017 saw growth in production and business, with many factories going into production to meet domestic demand and export, the ministry said.

To support the steel industry this year, the ministry will continue to apply trade remedies in accordance with WTO rules and free trade agreements between Viet Nam and its partners to protect the industry from the competitive pressure of imported steel products.

The ministry will also direct enterprises to monitor closely the market at home and abroad for ensuring suitable business plans. The enterprises must enhance consumption of products, reduce inventory, maintain production and business activities, ensure enough raw materials for production and promote brand advertisement.

Nguyen Van Sua, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Steel Association, said that in 2018, the association will continue to co-ordinate closely with the MoIT’s Trade Defence Department and enterprises in following the cases related with trade remedies for steel products.

The association has also recommended that Vietnamese steelmakers should co-operate actively with relevant offices when being investigated.

Experts said with the optimistic macro-economic picture this year, the real estate and construction markets have been forecast to have strong development in the near future, creating more opportunities for Vietnamese steel producers. Therefore, they must have reasonable development strategies to deal with difficulties as well as take full advantages of production and business.

According to the association’s latest report, in the first 11 months of 2017, Viet Nam’s steel imports had a year-on-year decrease of 14 per cent in volume to 18.2 million tonnes and 15 per cent in value to US$9.63 billion.

At present, Viet Nam’s steel imports mainly come from China, with 6.5 million tonnes of steel, accounting for nearly 47 per cent of the total steel imports.

Meanwhile, Viet Nam’s steel exports in 2017 reached over 4.3 million tonnes, with total export value of nearly $3 billion. Those figures reached a year-on-year increase of 33 per cent in volume and 56 per cent in value. ASEAN is still the main export market, with exports of 2.4 million tonnes, accounting for 58.6 per cent of total steel exports.

Significantly, construction steel exports reached over 1 million tonnes, a surge of 62 per cent over the same period. Viet Nam exported 300,000 tonnes of pig iron in 2017 instead of importing 2 million tonnes in 2015.

Sua said steel production and consumption in 2017 of the association’s member companies achieved high growth compared to 2016, meeting the domestic steel demand and export. — VNS