According to preliminary statistics released by the General Department of Customs, Vietnam exported 12.17Mt of cement and clinker for a value of US$430.63m in the first eight months of 2017. The cement volume was up 20.5 per cent and the clinker volume up 13.2 per cent over the same period last year. In August alone, exports of 1.38Mt of cement and clinker reached US$54.09m (down 0.9 per cent in volume, but up seven per cent in value against July 2017).

Vietnam's average export price of cement in the first eight months of 2017 was US$35.4/t. The highest export prices were to Laos for US$66.2/t, followed by Cambodia for US$52.6/t.

Cement and clinker exports in August 2017 averaged US$39.07/t, an increase of eight per cent compared to July 2017, but down 0.6 per cent from August 2016. In August, the price of cement and clinker exported to Southeast Asian countries was high at around US$51/t. Exports to Laos reached the highest price at US$69.2/t, the Philippines reached US$52.8/t and Cambodia US$52.3/t. In contrast, exports to Malaysia reached the lowest at US$29/t, while exports to China and Bangladesh were around US$31/t.

Bangladesh was the largest consumer of cement and clinker from Vietnam, with 4.91Mt imported in the first eight months (up 56 per cent YoY), worth US$153.74m.

The Philippines was the second largest export market with a volume of 3.15Mt over the first eight months, up 28 per cent over the same period, and valued at US$141.2m, up 23 per cent over the same period.

Cement and clinker exports to China in the first eight months of this year increased sharply, up 155 per cent in both volume and value terms compared with the same period last year, although volumes only reached 69,960t.

In contrast, clinker and cement exports to Laos, Malaysia, Mozambique and Cambodia plunged 27-46 per cent in both volume and value compared to the same period last year.