Vietnam's Statistics Office has announced that the country's imports of billets and finished steel products rose 41.1 percent year on year to 1.5 million tons in the first quarter of 2007.
Billet imports rose 32.2 percent year on year to 473.000 tons during the period in question.
The Vietnamese Trade Ministry expects billet imports to exceed two million tons in 2007. Billet production is expected to amount to 2.3 million tons this year.