According to preliminary statistics from the General Department of Customs, in September of 2019, Vietnam’s exports of iron and steel products decreased by 15.6 per cent compared to August of 2019, but for the first 9 months of 2019, the figure increased by 12.3 per cent over the same period last year, reaching over 2.49 billion USD, accounting for 1.3 per cent of total export turnover of the country.

In the first 9 months of 2019, Vietnam's iron and steel products were mainly exported to six key markets, namely the United States, Japan, India, Thailand, South Korea and Cambodia, with turnover of over 100 million USD. The US had the highest turnover of 500.73 million USD, increased by 40.79 per cent over the same period last year. In September of 2019 alone, the country also exported to the US 57.34 million USD worth of exports, down by 12.38 per cent compared to the previous month and up by 4.3 per cent compared to September of 2018.

In general, in the first 9 months of this year, the export speed to major markets increased, only Thailand saw a decrease of 20.62 per cent with only 151.17 million USD. Among these markets, the exports to Cambodia saw the highest growth rate of 53.42 per cent, though only reached 118.16 million USD. In September of 2019 alone, the exports to Cambodia decreased by 22.74 per cent compared to August of 2019 but increased by 6.55 per cent compared to September of 2018.

In addition to the above mentioned markets, Vietnamese iron and steel products were also exported to other countries such as the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Indonesia.

In order not to be too dependent on traditional markets, compared to the same period last year, in the first 9 months of 2019 Vietnam had a number of new markets such as: Kuwait, Mozambique, Argentina, Bangladesh, Romania, Pakistan, Czech, Brunay and Finland with the export turnover of 956,300 USD; 458,700 USD; 5.68 million USD; 5.33 million USD; 4.01 million USD; 1.32 million USD; 3.27 million USD; 19.11 million USD and 11.05 million USD, respectively.

In general, in the first 9 months of 2019, the export turnover of iron and steel products to almost all markets increased, accordingly, the exports to the Swedish market increased significantly by 3.3 times (ie, increasing by 231.99 per cent), though only reached 60.06 million USD. In September of 2019 alone, the country’s exports of iron and steel to Sweden reached 7.45 million USD, down by 33.46 per cent compared to August of 2019 but up by 8.8 times compared to September of 2018. In addition, the exports to Norway also increased sharply, nearly tripling to 1.2 million USD, particularly in September of 2019, the exports of iron and steel to Norway reached 331,600, up by 4.8 times ( or 376.25 per cent) compared to of 2019 and 8.9 times (ie, increasing by 797.54 per cent) compared to September of 2018.

 

In the opposite direction, the exports to Saudi Arabia market fell by 53.54 per cent to 5.77 million USD. Besides, the exports to Myanmar also dropped sharply by 53.27 per cent to 40.44 million USD. In September of 2019, the country exported only 2.41 million USD to Myanmar, down by 48.3 per cent compared to August of 2019 and down by 56.1 per cent compared to September of 2018.