Cement market to improve

The Vietnam Cement Corporation (VNCC) predicted the cement market would improve in the fourth quarter of this year, once the Government enacts strict measures to stabilise the price of goods and dry weather permits delayed construction to resume.

Cement demand has been at a standstill since early this year. After the price of iron and steel increased, many companies had to temporarily delay construction works.

VNCC’s general director, Nguyen Van Hanh, said cement demand would be between 13.5 and 13.6Mt from now until the end of this year, marking a 6.5 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.

Nguyen Anh Quan, head of the corporation’s Marketing Division, said the corporation expected to produce and sell more than 6Mt of
cement in the third and fourth quarters of this year.

VNCC has produced and sold nearly 6 million tonnes of cement and clinker since early this year, an increase of nearly 400,000 tonnes compared with the same period last year. The corporation has also imported more than 1 million tonnes of  clinker—nearly 737,000t for the Ha Tien Cement Company 1 and the remainder for the Cement Import and Export Company.