Vietnam's steel production increase may affect the global market in 2019

Due to the strong performance of Vietnam's steel exports and the increase of domestic production, it is expected to affect the global steel trade pattern in 2019.

Although steel exports are affected by US 232 tariffs, unlike other Asian countries, Vietnam's steel exports to the United States increased significantly in 2018.

According to the US Census Bureau, Vietnam exported 111 million tons of steel materials to the United States in 2018, a 48% increase over 2017.

Last year, US steel imports totaled 25.69 million tons steel materials, of which Vietnamese steel imports accounted for about 4.3%.

Despite a 13.1% year-on-year decline in steel imports from the United States in 2018 to 25.69 million tons, the share of imports from Vietnam increased significantly from 2.5% in 2017 (about 749,000 tons).

In 2018, Vietnam exported 6.26 million tons of steel materials, up 33% from 4.71 million tons in 2017. Over the same period, the country imported 13.5 million tons of steel materials, down about 10% from 15 million tons in 2017.

According to data from Vietnam Iron and Steel Association, the trend of steel import and export in Vietnam is contrary to that in the past year, mainly because Vietnam's steel output increased by 14.9% to 24.19 million tons.

Data show that last year Vietnam's production of hot rolled steel coils increased the most, to 3440,000 tons, nearly 1.5 times higher than that of 138,000 tons in 2017.

A recent report on Vietnam's steel industry released by Citi Research shows that when judging global steel production trends, it is necessary to pay attention to output growth in non-traditional producers that may change the global steel trade balance.