Vicem half-year sales dip 0.5%, Vietnam

Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem), the country’s leading state-owned cement producer, said its cement and clinker sales slipped 0.5 per cent to 10.73Mt in the first half of 2015. Of the volume, 9.58Mt were sold in the domestic market (+7.1 per cent YoY) while 1.15Mt were exported (-37.7 per cent).

In the first half of this year, Vicem produced 8.36Mt of clinker and 9.2Mt of cement, rising five per cent and 6.1 per cent YoY, respectively.

As of June 30, Vicem had 1.75Mt of cement and clinker inventory, including 1.41Mt of clinker, equivalent to 28 days of production.

Third-quarter target
Vicem targets to produce 4.26Mt of clinker and 5.21Mt of cement in the third quarter. The corporation also aims to sell 5.97Mt of cement in the third quarter, raising the full-year target to 13.13Mt.

Last year, Vicem’s clinker production edged up 0.7 per cent on-year to 16.5Mt while cement output rose 10.3 per cent to 18.46Mt.