Increased steel production in Vietnam may affect global market in 2019

Due to the strong export performance ofVietnam's steel products and the increase in domestic production, it isexpected to affect the global steel trade pattern in 2019.

According to the US Census Bureau, Vietnamexported 1.11 million tons of steel to the United States in 2018, a 48%increase from 2017. Last year, US steel imports totaled 25.69 million tons, ofwhich imports from Vietnam accounted for about 4.3%.

Although US steel imports fell by 13.1%year-on-year to 25.69 million tons in 2018, imports from Vietnam accounted fora significant increase from 2.5% (about 749,000 tons) in 2017. In 2018,Vietnam’s steel exports amounted to 6.26 million tons, an increase of 33% fromthe figure of 4.71 million tons in 2017. In the same period, the country'ssteel imports were 13.5 million tons, down about 10% from 15 million tons in2017. According to data from the Vietnam Iron and Steel Association, Vietnam’ssteel imports and exports have a reverse year-on-year trend, mainly due to a14.9% year-on-year increase in Vietnam’s steel output to 24.19 million tons.Data show that Vietnam's hot rolled coil production increased the most, lastyear, to 3.44 million tons, nearly 1.5 times more than the 1.38 million tons in2017.