Vietnam 10-month sales edge ahead

Vietnam sold 58.66Mt of cement and clinker in the first 10 months of this year, rising one per cent from a year earlier and fulfilling 80 per cent of the whole-year target, the Building Material Department under the Ministry of Construction said.

The total comprised 45.51Mt of domestic sales (+9 per cent YoY), the Xay Dung online newspaper cited the department as saying.

In October, the country’s cement sales rose 15 per cent MoM to 6.37Mt, including 5.07Mt of domestic sales, up 14 per cent MoM and 50 per cent YoY.

The positive growth of cement sales in October was mostly attributed to the recovery of the property market with the restart of many constructions real estate projects along with the construction of infrastructure projects in the southern region, said Nguyen Quang Cung, chairman of the Vietnam Cement Association (VNCA).

Mr Cung also predicted that the country’s cement sale this year will rise by 8-9 per cent versus a year ago, including an increase of between 4-5Mt of domestic sales.

Exports decline
Despite the positive growth of cement sales in domestic market, the country’s cement exports dropped 22 per cent to 13.15Mt in the 10-month period, meeting 69.2 per cent of the whole-year plan. October exports were 1.3Mt, up eight per cent MoM but down 60 per cent YoY.

Mr Cung said the reduction was due to lower oil prices and competition from Thailand and China. With the advantage of high output and low production cost, exporters from Thailand and Chinese have been winning contracts from Vietnamese firms, according to him. The association earlier predicted that Vietnam may fall short of this year’s cement and clinker export target of 20Mt.