Viet Nam generated US$438 million from exporting 13.6 million tonnes of cement and clinker over the past nine months of this year, fulfilling 90 per cent of the yearly target.

The nine-month exports also marked respective increases of 12.7 per cent in value and 21.4 per cent in volume compared with the same period last year, statistics from the General Department of Customs revealed.

In September alone, the country’s cement and clinker exports reached more than 1.53 million, valued at $53.7 million, up 10.6 per cent in volume but down one per cent in value over August, according to the data. During the January-September period, Bangladesh and the Philippines remained the two largest importers of Vietnamese cement and clinker, accounting for 33.8 per cent and 31.8 per cent of the country’s total exports, respectively.

Bangladesh imported 5.53 million tonnes of cement and clinker, worth $162.4 million, from Viet Nam during the period, while Philippines spent $153.2 million on importing 3.43 million tonnes of Viet Nam’s cement and clinker. Other major consumers included Taiwan, which imported 778,000 tonnes, valued at $23.3 million; Peru (436,000 tonnes, $20.5 million); and Sri Lanka (423,000 tonnes, $12.5 million).

Despite positive export performance in the nine-month period, domestic enterprises are still worried about the cement oversupply in the future as a new production line of the Xuan Thanh cement factory in northern Ha Nam Province has started operations, providing 4.5 million tonnes of cement annually.

The nation’s total designed cement production capacity to date is estimated at nearly 100 million tonnes. — VNS