Vietnam Steel Association said that Vietnam’s steel consumption in the first seven months fell 9.6 percent year-on-year to 12.36 million tonnes due to Covid-19 impacts while production dropped 6.9 percent to 13.72 million tonnes. This is the fourth month in a row that steel consumption and production have decreased. Industry insiders attribute this to declining demand in some steel-consuming sectors like construction and auto, motorbike, and electronics manufacturing, all because of the pandemic.

The association has also warned exporters that the US could impose antidumping and countervailing duties on their products after having done the same with China since September last year, lowering Chinese steel exports to that market by 41 percent over 2018 to USD 711 million last year. Vietnam’s steel exports in the first seven months fell 2.7 percent year-on-year to USD 2.5 billion