Vietnamese steel producer Hoa Phat’s steel sales in February 2021 stood at 439,000mt, down by 25pc from January 2021, the company said in a statement.
The company said that its steel sales in February also declined from the prior year as the Tet holiday (Lunar New Year) was prolonged for a month and the COVID-19 outbreaks were reported in many places across the nation.
Of total steel sales in February, the company sold 189,000mt of construction steel (43pc of total sales share), registering a marginal growth, while sales of hot-rolled coil (HRC) stood at 175,000mt (40 pc od total sales share), down by 30pc from the same month in 2020.
In February, the company’s sales of steel billet fell by 47pc to 75,000mt (17pc of total sales share).
Hoa Phat exported steel to major markets such as the US, Japan, China, and Indonesia in February. Of which, the US imported the highest number of orders.
Jan-Feb sales
In the first two months of the year (Jan-Feb, 2021), Hoa Phat’s steel sales stood at more than 1mn mt. Of which, the company’s finished construction steel sales reached 376,000mt, while exports for the same stood at 67,000mt, increasing slightly from the same period in the preceding year.
In the Jan-Feb period, sales of steel billets in both domestic and foreign markets reached 214,000mt, while the sale of HRC stood at 428,000mt, equivalent to 74pc of the total output in 2020.
Crude steel output
Hoa Phat’s crude steel production in February stood at 627,000mt as Hoa Phat Dung Quat Iron and Steel Complex’s blast furnace No. 4 was put into operation in January 2021.
Outlook
The company said that as March is the peak time for steel consumption, it has produced a good volume of products to cater to the strong market demand. Sales in the first few days of March have increased drastically, the company informed. Hoa Phat aims to produce 5mn mt of finished construction steel and steel billet and 2.7mn mt of HRC in 2021.