In this context, the steel industry plays an essential role in providing key raw materials for construction items of the project. This is a great opportunity for domestic steel enterprises to affirm their position and promote the sustainable development of the industry.
According to the assessment of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Vietnamese steel industry currently has the participation of diverse economic sectors: State, FDI and private. Of which, the private sector and FDI account for a large proportion and are the driving force, deciding the market.
Major steel production projects are mainly concentrated in the Central region, which has many advantages for developing steel production such as deep-water ports, large land areas, low compensation and construction costs. Large-scale complexes such as the Steel Complex in Vung Ang Economic Zone, Nghi Son Iron and Steel Complex, Quang Ngai Steel Complex, Posco Steel Plant, Shengli Steel Plant, Viet Steel Plant...
The steel industry has made significant progress with major projects such as Formosa Ha Tinh, Hoa Phat, Dung Quat all using traditional blast furnace technology with modern design and technical equipment, large furnace capacity; closed production process, optimizing energy use; steel rolling lines are selected with advanced technology and high automation.
Factories of POSCO Vietnam, China Steel & Nippon Steel Vietnam Joint Stock Company, or some private sector factories such as Ton Dong A, Hoa Phat cold rolling... have been invested with modern technological equipment. The steel industry has focused on investing in large-scale projects, producing previously unavailable products such as hot-rolled steel plates, cold-rolled steel sheets...
According to experts, the North-South railway project will not only boost steel consumption in the short term but also open up long-term growth opportunities for the domestic steel industry. With a total route length of up to thousands of kilometers, the volume of steel used will be huge, creating a stable and continuous demand for many years.
At the Government's conference with large enterprises on solutions to contribute to the country's socio-economic development held at the end of September, Mr. Tran Dinh Long, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hoa Phat Group, emphasized the importance of the North-South high-speed railway project with a total investment of 70 billion USD, assessing that this will be a strategic national infrastructure project in the medium and long term.
Mr. Tran Dinh Long also affirmed that Hoa Phat Group has enough capacity to produce steel for high-speed railways and is ready to participate in bidding to supply steel for this project. From a business perspective, the project is worth over 70 billion USD, of which the vehicles and equipment alone are worth up to 34.1 billion USD, which will be a very large and extremely attractive market for businesses with strengths in manufacturing locomotives and carriages.
However, the current problem of the Vietnamese steel industry is fierce competition with imported steel. A representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in the near future, the steel industry will continue to face many difficulties in competing with imported steel. Most domestic enterprises are currently only capable of producing basic steel products for the real estate industry and are not yet capable of producing high-quality products for the mechanical engineering industry such as: Steel for automobile hulls, steel for ship hulls.
In addition, the "oversupply" situation of many domestic steel products and the increase in imported steel will make price competition more fierce. The unstable world market, increasing international freight rates... also pose many risks for steel industry enterprises.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade is currently developing a strategy for the development of Vietnam's steel industry until 2030, with a vision to 2050, to submit to the Government. If approved, the Vietnamese steel industry will have many advantages for this important national project.
