HCMC – Although the financial outlook in January and February has brightened, metal manufacturing, home consumption and exports plunged, in accordance with the Vietnam Metal Affiliation (VSA).
Within the first two months of 2023, the output of completed metal merchandise fell 16.3% year-on-year to almost 4.3 million tons.
Metal gross sales have been down 23.2% over the identical interval in 2022 to three.8 million tons. Metal exports contributed a million tons to the full, reducing 10.4% over the year-ago interval.
In February alone, the manufacturing of completed metal merchandise rose almost 22% month-on-month, however dipped 8.9% year-on-year, at 2.35 million tons.
Equally, metal consumption within the month amounted to some 2.1 million tons, up 18.1% over January, however down 19% in opposition to the earlier February.
The drop within the industrial manufacturing index in lots of localities, coupled with companies which have pulled out of the market outnumbering these coming into or returning to the market, has adversely affected metal output and consumption, the affiliation mentioned.
In the meantime, the costs of enter supplies for metal manufacturing elevated.
On March 7, exhausting coking coal was priced at US$331 per ton on a free-on-board foundation at Australian ports, up US$6 per ton in comparison with early February, whereas metal scrap costs inched up US$13 to US$448 per ton.
On the identical day, scorching rolled coils (HRC) have been traded at US$643 per ton on a price and freight foundation, a rise of US$24 in comparison with the start of February.
The HRC worth volatility on the worldwide market has affected Vietnamese flat metal producers as they use HRC as manufacturing supplies, the Vietnam Metal Affiliation mentioned.
