HANOI: The most recently released trade data indicates that scrap steel imports by Vietnam during the month of March this year increased considerably when compared with the previous month.
Vietnam imported 337,000 tons of scrap steel during Mar ‘16. The scrap imports by the country have registered considerable jump of 77.8% when compared with the imports during the month before. The scrap imports by the country had totaled 189,000 tons during February 2015. When matched with the imports during a year before, the Mar ’16 scrap imports by Vietnam were up by nearly 32%. The country’s scrap imports during March last year had totaled 256,000 tons.
The average import price of scrap steel during the third month of the current year stood at US$184.10 per ton. The average scrap import price has increased marginally by over 3% when matched with the previous month. The scrap imports by the country had averaged at $178.20 per ton during February this year. The country’s scrap import values jumped higher by 83.7% over the previous month to $62.03 million during March this year.
The cumulative scrap imports by the country during the first quarter of 2016 totaled 698,000 tons. The scrap imports during the quarter were up by 11.5% when matched with the imports during January to March in 2015. However, the value of imports dropped significantly by almost a third to $126.47 billion over the previous year.
Vietnam had imported 3.186 million tons of steel scrap during the entire year 2015, marginally down by 5.6% when matched with the year before. The country’s scrap import values had dropped sharply by nearly 35% to $808.57 million in 2015.