[Ferro-Alloys.com] Hoa Phat Group, the largest steel maker in Vietnam, exported over 40,000 tonnes of construction steel in February, almost tripling that of the same period last year.

Dramatic surge was seen in exports to Canada, which accounted for 54.4 percent of the total exports. It was followed by Thailand and Malaysia.

The company’s sales of construction steel last month hit 205,000 tonnes, bringing the total sales in the first two months of 2020 to 381,000 tonnes, including 69,000 tonnes exported.

Aside from finished products, the firm supplied 170,000 tonnes of high-quality billets to factories in Asia, including Thailand and Indonesia.

In April, the steel maker plans to test the hot-rolled coil (HRC) production line as part of the second phase of the Hoa Phat – Dung Quang steel integrated complex.

Hoa Phat Group exported more than 265,000 tonnes of construction steel in 2019, up 11.3 percent year on year, the multi-sectoral conglomerate reported.

Some of its foreign markets include the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei.

Among them, Cambodia was the largest, to which Hoa Phat shipped 151,000 tonnes of steel, accounting for over 50 percent of the total export volume.

It was followed by Japan (55,000 tonnes), Canada (20,000 tonnes), the US and Malaysia, which are all demanding markets, proving the competitiveness and quality of Hoa Phat steel in the global market, the group said.

For 2020, the multi-sector conglomerate aims to ship 400,000 tonnes of construction steel abroad, equivalent to nearly 10 percent of its sale target./.VNA