Construction steel prices on the domestic market have increased around VND300,000 ton to over VND10 million per ton, the record hike over the past ten years, state media reported Tuesday.
The sharp rise is mainly attributed to global hikes of ingot steel on the global market, meanwhile 60 per cent of the country’s demand for ingot steel are fed by imports.
The state-run Vietnam Steel Corp. added VND100,000 to rolled steels to VND10.05 million (US$628) per ton.
Other steel companies all over the country still continued hiking higher than VSC’s prices to VND300,000 each ton.
At present, steel prices have reached up to VND10.5 million per ton on the market, even VND11 million in remote areas while steels account for 25 per cent of the total value of each construction work.
Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) reported that the local steel makers are still heavily reliant on steel ingot imports so steel prices go up further as the ingot steel imported from China keeps rising in prices.
Chinese ingot steel is traded at US$580 per ton, the prices may set record VND11 million/ton, said Le Ngoc Son, an official of Vietnam-Italian Steel (VIS) Company.
Government cut down 3 per cent tax on ingot steel imported, or US$15 per ton to prevent steel prices increasing fast.
With rising slightly of steel prices, in the first eight months of this year, five steel conjugate projects and three steel projects with investment capital nearly US$10 billion.
Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) warned against overproduction as the country’s now has at least five steel complex under construction.
VSA forecast that if these projects are operational in 2015, Vietnam will provide more than 22 million tons each year while Vietnam steel demand is predicted about 15 million tons a year. (Pioneer, VTC)
Vietnamese
