The domestic steel billet production has reached five million tons per year and is enough for local production as the Pomina 3 steel plant located in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province officially went into operation on Wednesday. The plant can produce one million tons of steel billet and one million tons of building steel per year, said Do Duy Thai, general director of Pomina Steel Co. Thai told the Daily... 

Demands for local building materials in Jan-July have strongly tumbled, prompting the industry to cut forecast consumption for the whole year further. The cement industry in the first seven months has produced only 24 million tons, and it is estimated that consumption this year will total only 48 million tons, said Nguyen Van Thien, chairman of the Vietnam Cement Association. This proves further contraction... 

The prolonged freeze in the property market and cut back in public investment has brought the construction material sector to the brink of bankruptcy. According to Vietnam Steel Association’s latest report, the production and consumption of steel in recent years has reduced drastically. Generally speaking, in the last six months of the year, 2.38 million tons of steel was produced, about 6.8 percent... 

After several months, big steel enterprises have finally decided to lower the steel price by VND200,000-300,000 per ton from this week to boost the consumption, bring down the inventories and avoid the interrupted production. Pham Chi Cuong, chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) told the Daily on Monday that Hoa Phat, Thai Nguyen, Vina Kyoei, Thep Viet and Southern Steel have announced... 

Steel maker Vina Kyoei last Friday kicked off construction of a new steel mill with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons in Phu My 1 Industrial Zone in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. The US$220 million facility will be up and running by June 2014. When in place the new plant will raise the annual steel production capacity of Vina Kyoei to nearly one million tons. It currently has a steel factory with a... 

The steel industry has seen a strong decrease in production and consumption in May against April, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reports. Specifically, the production volume of construction steel in May alone reached 410,000 tones, a reduction of 50,000 tonnes against April. In the first five months this year, steel production reached nearly 2 million tonnes or a decrease of 198,000 tonnes over... 

Major steel pipe exporters of Vietnam did not dump their products in the U.S., according to the preliminary investigation result of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). DOC last week announced the preliminary determination in the anti-dumping investigation into circular welded carbon-quality steel pipes imported from Vietnam, India, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said the Competition Management... 

Five steel makers have halted production due to soaring input costs and shrinking consumption, while cement firms are boosting sales promotions to offload inventories. Pham Chi Cuong, chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), told the Daily that as prices of coal sold to steel producers had been hiked and fuel costs had recently increased again, production costs had been further pushed up,... 

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) on Tuesday announced its preliminary determination in the anti-subsidy investigation of steel pipes imported from Vietnam and other Asian countries, says the website steelorbis.com. After conducting an investigation into steelmakers from Vietnam, India, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), DOC determined that Vietnamese producers have received the subsidies... 

Surging input costs of oil and coal are making inroads into the steel and cement industries that have already been struggling with poor sales since early this year. Nguyen Van Thien, chairman of the Vietnam Cement Association, told the Daily that a 10% coal price rise last month and the recent fuel price hike were putting great pressure on cement manufacturers. The higher coal and fuel prices have...