Steel prices dip to near three-year low

In its latest price adjustment, giant steel producer Hoa Phat Group decreased the retail price of reinforcing bar by 0.97% to VND14.24 million ($602.24) per ton.

The company had earlier reduced rolled steel prices by 1.74% to VND14.04 million.

Other steelmakers such as Viet Y, Viet Duc, Kyoei Vietnam and Pomina have also made similar price cuts.

The prices are at their lowest levels since the end of 2020, according to data platform Steel Online.

Deputy CEO of the platfom, Bui Duy Anh, said many countries in the world are trying to fight inflation and delaying new construction, leading to this decline in steel prices.

In Vietnam, steel sellers are seeing a drop in orders though demand is usually high at this time of the year, he added.

Steel sales fell by 17.5% year-on-year to 12.5 million tons in the first half of the year, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

Production exceeded demand by 149,000 tons, it added.

Observers had predicted that the market would start to see signs of recovery in the second quarter, but it has not come to pass.

Hoa Phat Group chairman Tran Dinh Long had said at the end of March that the steel sector had overcome its biggest difficulties.

But his company’s first half sales fell by 27% year-on-year to VND2.9 million tons.

Securities brokerage VNDirect expects demand to remain weak until the end of the year and construction steel sales to fall by 9.2% this year to 9.5 million tons.