Steel Import from India Jumps Multi Fold During Jan-Jun 2017- Vietnam Customs.
Vietnam is world’s second largest net importer of steel in the world according to World Steel Association. Net imports can be considered as exports minus imports. Country imported 18.26 MnT of steel in 2016, out of which 59% was from China, followed by Japan (14%), South Korea (10%), Taiwan (10%), Brazil (0.1%) and India (1.2%) according to Vietnam’s general department of customs.
Steel imports from India posted a whopping increase In the first six months of 2017, according to customs data. Vietnam imported over 800,000 MT of steel from India during Jan-Jun 2017 against 20,000 MT during the same period in last year.
Market participants attribute this huge increase in steel imports from India because of following reasons-
1. Falling Chinese Steel Exports: Strong domestic demand and surge in HRC export offers leads to drastic fall of export volumes from China. In first eight months (Jan-Aug) of from China. In first eight months (Jan-Aug) of CY17 China’s steel export volumes went down by 29% and stood at 54.27 MnT, against 76.57 MnT in the similar time-frame of previous year. Another reason cited is imposition of trade barriers like anti dumping duty from U.S, India and Europe led to falling of export volumes from China.
2. Competitive offers from India: Average price of steel imported from India was assessed at VND 11.8 million (USD 519) per tonne, by Vietnamese customs.
3. Rising steel production in India: India is world’s 3rd largest steel producer with an annual production of around 100 million tonnes. According to provisional data released by Joint Plant Committee (Govt. of India) So far in FY18 (till Aug”l 7) nation’s crude steel production surged by 3.5% Y-o-Y basis to 41.3 MnT.
India’s steel exports have increased significantly owing to higher supply than demand in the domestic market. So far in FY18 (till Aug’17) total finished steel exports from India increased 57% Y-o-Y to 3.73 MnT.
Thus,Vietnam imported a total of more than 7.8 MnT of steel in the first half 2017, down 17% in volume overthe same period last year. Steel import prices averaged USD 582/MT on CFR basis.
Source Steel Mint powered by Keyvan Jafari Tehrani (JTC)
