Vietnam-based steel producer Hoa Phat announced that its Hoa Phat Dung Quat Iron and Steel Production Complex has started receiving HRC orders from its customers, with a volume of about 140,000 mt booked as of the beginning of November. Since the test run in May this year up to now, the HRC production of the complex has reached more than 340,000 mt.
The first batches of the product will be delivered to customers in early November and are planned to be used in pipe production. Orders from companies in north Vietnam have accounted for 60 percent of the total, with the remainder from the south of the country. According to sources, in the first half of October there have been sales of Hoa Phat’s HRC to local customers at around $530/mt CFR for SAE1006 and at $520/mt CFR for SS400, SteelOrbis has learned. Full-scale commercial sales will start from early November.
Hoa Phat Dung Quat Steel Joint Stock Company plans to put its blast furnace No. 4 into operation in January 2021. When all four blast furnaces of the complex come into operation, Hoa Phat’s HRC output will reach over three million mt per year. According to the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), domestic HRC production only meets about 60 percent of domestic demand. Accordingly, Hoa Phat Group is implementing legal procedures to expand the project in Dung Quat with a focus on HRC products, thereby aiming to maintain the growth rate of the revenue and profits of the group. With a total additional investment of VND 60 trillion ($2.58 billion), the company’s production capacity will reach an annual 5 million mt.