Manufacturing

Illustrative image (Source: tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - Steel maker Hoa Phat Group is recruiting experienced personnel for a cargo container manufacturing project expected to start production in the second quarter of next year, according to the company. The new shipping container plant will have a designed capacity of 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) per year. Global demand for cargo containers is on the rise as a result of growing e-commerce and foreign trade, said Nguyen Manh Tuan , Vice Chairman of the Hoa Phat Group. “We have been conducting research in various fields and are confident we have the ‘firepower’ to make the container manufacturing project successful and competitive with manufacturers from China, the world’s leading container producer,” he said. The group’s recruiters are working against the clock to enable the construction of the plant to begin as soon as possible. According to Hoa Phat, shipping containers are made from weather-resistant and expensive SPA-H steel. Steel currently accounts for about 55 percent of the production cost. In Vietnam, only the Hoa Phat Dung Quat Complex has the technology to produce this type of steel at a reasonable cost, Tuan said. Hoa Phat has estimated it will need to produce 1 million tonnes of Hot-Rolled Coil (HRC) steel to reach an annual capacity of half a million TEUs. The group manufactured nearly 700,000 tonnes of HRC and more than 5 million tonnes of billet and construction steel last year. Its Dung Quat 2 project is scheduled to be operational in early 2022. Set to manufacture HRC steel using the latest advanced technology, it has a designed capacity of 5 million tonnes per year. Though the shipping container market is growing 5 percent annually, there has been a shortage of supply. In previous years, China had produced 90 percent of the world’s containers. The country, however, has cut output by 40 percent over the last two years, despite growing domestic …

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It plans to build its first container manufacturing factory in Binh Duong or Dong Nai province and near Cat Lai Port in HCMC and Cai Mep – Thi Vai International Port in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province. The southern region has an especially high demand for containers. Market research by Hoa Phat in fact found that three out of every four containers are used there. Nguyen Manh Tuan, vice chairman of the Hoa Phat Group, said the containers would be made of weather-resistant hot-rolled coil steel with enhanced corrosion resistance produced at its Hoa Phat Dung Quat 2 steel plant to be launched in early 2022. The container production will start in Q2, 2022. The logistics sector is suffering from a severe container shortage since many remain in various ports around the world, unable to offload their goods, while demand for containers to export to Europe and the U.S. is high. At the end of 2020, the Vietnam Maritime Administration had to order container shipping lines to publicly declare their freight rates and surcharges, saying it had received numerous complaints about inflated prices due to a shortage of containers and warning it would not tolerate gouging. Most shipping lines have hiked freight by 2-10 times in the last three months. In Vietnam, there is no container production. Tuan explained that the price of weather-resistant hot-rolled coil steel used for making containers is high, and would cause losses for companies if they have to import it. "Hoa Phat can produce this type of steel," he said. …

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The Hanoitimes - The health of the sector has now strengthened in three successive months. The Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) ticked up to 51.6 in February from 51.3 in January, signaling a modest improvement in business conditions, according to Nikkei and IHS Markit. The health of the sector has now strengthened in three successive months. A reading below the 50 neutral mark indicates no change from the previous month, while a reading below 50 indicates contractions and above 50 points to an expansion. Sustained growth of new orders was recorded, helping to drive the improvement in overall business conditions. New work has now increased in six successive months. Total new orders were supported by a return to growth of new export business amid some signs of improving international demand. Rising new orders was the main factor behind a return to growth of manufacturing production. The slight increase was also partly attributed to efforts to build stocks of finished goods. These efforts were successful in bringing an end to a four-month sequence of falling post-production inventories. Employment increased for the second time in three months as firms responded to rises in demand and production requirements. This enhanced capacity meant that firms were able to keep on top of workloads and reduced outstanding business again. A renewed expansion of buying activity was also recorded, but stocks of purchases continued to fall amid the use of inputs to support production. Problems securing raw materials also contributed to falling stocks of purchases. Suppliers' delivery times lengthened sharply again. Difficulties sourcing goods from abroad due to a lack of shipping containers and global demand for materials outpacing supply continued to cause longer lead times. These imbalances led to a further sharp increase in input costs in February. Although the rate of inflation eased to a three-month low, the rise in input …

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