Hoa Phat Group, the largest steelmaker in the country, exported 240,000 tonnes of steel last year, a year-on-year increase of 50.97 per cent, the group said on Monday.

Hoa Phat also reported a year-on-year surge of 8 per cent in its steel output to nearly 2.4 million tonnes last year.

The group achieved new records in both domestic sales and exports in October, with volumes of more than 250,000 tonnes, and 40,000 tonnes, respectively.

Never before had the group received such large orders from its traditional markets (including Japan, the US, Cambodia, and Malaysia). Strongest growth was seen in Japan, with the number of steel orders increasing 20 times to over 58,500 tonnes, followed by Cambodia (246 per cent) and Malaysia (202 per cent).

Cambodia was the biggest customer of Hoa Phat last year with nearly 70,000 tonnes ordered, according to the group. This market will continue to grow for Hoa Phat as the country’s steel industry has not developed while demand is high for the construction of high-rise buildings.

Last year, the group also won the anti-dumping case filed by Australian firm One Steel Manufacturing Pty Ltd, resulting in no anti-dumping subsidies imposed on Hoa Phat steel products in the Australian market.

Regarding the US market, despite a 25 per cent tariff on most steel imports under the Trump administration’s Section 232, Hoa Phat managed to sell 35,600 tonnes to the market, accounting for 15 per cent of the group’s total exports.

In 2018, Hoa Phat steel was shipped to 14 countries across five continents. The group said that diversity in markets helped it not depend on a single market.

This year, the group will continue prioritising the domestic market, and set aside 10 per cent of its output for exports, targeting more markets in Southeast Asia.

In addition, construction of the Hoa Phat Dung Quat iron and steel production complex will be accelerated so that it can be completed by the end of the year. The complex has a designed capacity of 4 million tonnes of steel per year. About 70 per cent of works at the complex’s first stage were completed by the end of 2018.

This project is under the group’s long-term development strategy to become one of the top 50 largest steelmakers in the world. — VNS