Steel maker Hoa Phat Group announced that its subsidiary Hoa Phat Dung Quat Steel Joint Stock Company has signed a contract to export the first batch of 35,000 tonnes of hot-rolled coil (HRC) steel to Italy.
Steel enterprises have boosted exports while facing difficulties in domestic consumption due to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
The steel industry should diversify its export markets and products to reduce dependence on a single market and minimise the risks of high import tariffs as trade defence investigations targeting the industry increase.
Nam Kim Steel JSC (NKG) announced it had produced a total of 244,301 tonnes of steel products in the first quarter, exporting a record of 151,992 tonnes, mostly to European countries and the US.
Firms which exported derivative aluminium and steel to the US needed to work with their partners on requesting tax exemption in case their products satisfied conditions for exclusion.
Viet Nam exported 3.44 million tonnes of steel and iron worth US$2.24 billion in the first half of this year, up 4 per cent in value and 21 per cent in volume from the same period last year.
Hoa Phat Group, the largest steel maker 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 January 7.
In the first seven months of 2018, Viet Nam exported 3.41 million tonnes of steel, earning US$2.53 billion, increasing 40.4 per cent in volume and 56.3 per cent in turnover from the same period last year.
Hoa Phat Steel Pipe Company Limited, a subsidiary of Hoa Phat Group, posted 14.8 per cent on-year sales growth of 314,000 tonnes in the first half of the year.
The US Department of Commerce (DoC) has notified the exemption of measures if Vietnamese steel export enterprises prove that the exported products are made from material not using Chinese-origin substrate.