Rising export cost is said to make Vietnamese cement less competitive in the global market. (Photo: thanglongcement.com.vn)Hanoi (VNA)–Vietnam’s cement and clinker export in 2016 is estimated at some 15 milliontonnes worth 556 million USD.
It’s down 7 percent fromlast year due to fierce competition with cheap products of other producers.
According to the VietnamNational Cement Association, by the end of November, the country exported 13.97million tonnes, down 6 percent year-on-year.
The association saiddomestic cement export has been sliding since 2015 as the Vietnamese producthas to compete fiercely against products from China, India and Pakistan.
Rising export costs havealso caused Vietnamese cement to be less competitive in the global market, theassociation said.
To boost cement exports,the Ministry of Industry and Trade has asked its Trade Promotion Agency tobetter cooperate with other relevant agencies.
Following the exportdecline and insignificant increase in sales of cement in the domestic marketthis year, industry insiders are concerned it will be hard for the cementindustry to meet the target of selling 75-77 million tonnes of cement thisyear.
In the domestic market,54.52 million tonnes of cement were sold by the end of November, up 7 percentyear-on-year.
Vietnam currently has 78rotary kiln cement production lines with a combined capacity of 86.16 milliontonnes. The country is currently ranked the world’s fifth largest cementexporter; however, the country’s export volume is, in fact, much lower thanThailand’s.
Thai cement is morecompetitive than Vietnam as it has many traditional customers, besidesadvantages in transport and superior quality.
Vietnam is also findingit difficult to compete against China as its cement factories, whose designcapacity exceeds the demand of some 670 million tonnes -- equal to roughlyeight times Vietnam’s total cement design capacity -- which is why they oftensell their products at low prices.– VNA
VNA
