Vietnam’s steel imports in the first five months of the current year totaled 6.83 million mt, declining by 12.3 percent, with a value of $3.975 billion, up 33.3 percent, both compared to the same period of the previous year, as announced by the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) citing Vietnamese customs data.
Meanwhile, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, although the country’s steel imports decreased in the first five months of this year, the price of imported steel in this period was up 52.4 percent compared to the same period of 2016.
According to the VSA, in the January-May period of this year China remained the largest supplier of import steel to Vietnam, accounting for nearly 50 percent of total imports in the given period, reaching 3.33 million mt with a value of $1.89 billion. Other markets such as Japan and South Korea saw their steel supply volumes to Vietnam decline, though the value of the import volumes in question increased. Steel imports into Vietnam from India rose sharply in the given period in terms of both volume and value.