Posted on 30 Mar 2009
Q1 steel sales reached about 698,000 tonnes, equalling to only 71% of the last year's figure, reported the chair of Vietnam Steel Association, Nguyen Tien Nghi.
Total steel production in the first three-months of 2009 is estimated at 761,000 tonnes. Enterprises now are storing 220,000 tonnes of construction steel and 390,000 tonnes of steel billet.
In related news, Ministry of Finance officially raised the import duty on steel billet from 5% to 8%, rolled steel for construction from 12% to 15%, cola rolled steel from 7% to 8 and other kinds of steel from 12% to 13%. The new duty will be applied from April 1, 2009.
