In the period, the steel industry earned 2.47 billion USD from the export of various types of steel products, up 49.1 percent from the same period last year.

The output of unprocessed iron and steel also increased by 40.5 percent, while that of rolled steel went up 6.6 percent and shape steel, 6.9 percent on a yearly basis.

Main export markets of Vietnam’s steel in the first nine months of this year were Cambodia, which bought 631.2 million USD worth of Vietnamese steel products, the US (613.1 million USD), Indonesia (360.6 million USD), Malaysia (330.6 million USD), and Thailand (172.3 million USD).

The MoIT said the steel industry faced fierce competition from imports, along with many anti-dumping lawsuits in importing countries.

A problem of concern for Vietnam is the launch of anti-dumping investigation in several traditional ASEAN markets such as Thailand and Malaysia targeting steel products with Chinese origin or imported from China into Vietnam.

The ministry advised steel firms to use domestic materials and strive towards closed production chain to avoid anti-circumvention investigations.