HOUSELINKGlobal #1: Export, Construction Material Market fluctuations in the first half of April 2021

Promote the export of construction materials to Australia, recognize the limitations of Logistics to boost exports or the struggling domestic construction market because steel prices “suddenly” skyrocket are outstanding news in last week.

The Vietnam Trade Office in Australia calls for promoting the export of construction materials, interior, exterior and garden decoration products to the Australian market.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia, the Australian construction and building materials market is booming. The total seasonally adjusted total housing unit increased by 18.6% to 51,055 homes; newly constructed private house construction projects rose 26.6% to 33,761 houses; other housing projects of the private sector increased 4.1% to 16,049 projects; the total value of completed works increased 0.1% to 29.4 billion AUD.

During the past week, the Trade Office has exchanged and urged associations in Australia and Vietnamese exporters to continue promoting the export of construction materials, decorations, furniture, exterior, garden, in the context of many Australians rushed to buy a home. The next forecast will be the activities of repair, new construction, decoration, and completion.

Identify logistics limitations in Vietnam

The growth of Vietnamese exports in recent years brings great potential to the logistics industry. However, poor transport infrastructure and high logistics costs significantly reduce the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods and businesses.

According to the Vietnam Logistics Report 2020, based on the formula that the percentage of logistics costs equivalent to GDP depends on total logistics costs and total GDP, the World Bank’s ALG Consulting Company (WB) estimates the Logistics fees as per GDP of Vietnam in 2018 are about 16.8%, equivalent to about 42 billion USD. World Bank ranked Vietnam’s logistics ranked 39/160 countries in the world and 3rd in ASEAN, just behind Singapore and Thailand, and up 35 places compared to 2016.

According to the Transport and Logistics Statistics Yearbook of the World Bank and the Ministry of Transport in 2018 announced in May 2020, the logistics cost on the revenue of enterprises nationwide accounted for 8.96% of the total. manufacturing businesses and 9.7% of distributors, 9.37% on average for manufacturing and distribution businesses. In particular, transportation costs are still the component accounting for the highest proportion of the total logistics costs.

Traffic infrastructure is not synchronous; There is a lack of national and international logistics centers in key economic areas to act as a hub for goods distribution. Multimodal transport that combines the advantages of different modes of transport has not yet developed effectively in Vietnam. The limited connection between modes of transport continues to be the cause of the high cost of transport in Vietnam and lack of competitiveness.

Construction Market “cries” because of steel prices

According to the latest report of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), for the first three months of this year, steel production of all kinds reached 7.7 million tons, up 34% over the same period in 2020. Sales reached 6, 8 million tons, up 35%, of which steel exports of more than 1.6 million tons, up nearly 60% over the same period last year.

VSA also forecasts that steel price adjustments may increase by the end of the third quarter of 2021. The reason is that the billet price on April 6 was at 633 USD / ton, an increase of about 30 USD / ton compared to the price of billet at the beginning of March 2021 and an increase of more than 200 USD / ton compared to the same period. 2020. Hot rolled coil price at the beginning of April 2021 reached 795 USD / ton, a sharp increase of about 85 USD / ton compared to the price at the beginning of 3-2021.

The world hot rolled coil market fluctuates strongly, making the domestic hot rolled coil market difficult because flat steel producers such as galvanized steel sheet, steel pipe … use this steel as raw material for production.

Selling prices may continue to increase to compensate for increased input prices. Construction businesses will continue to be affected in the coming time.

Expectation on the development of cement market for the second quarter of 2021 – domestic and export

Cement consumption market has two “falling points”, that is the Lunar New Year and the rainy season, which is also the time when cement consumption is the slowest. In 2021, plus the third “falling point” is affected by the Covid – 19. But statistics show that the total consumption of cement and clinker for the whole society (including exports) in the first quarter of 2021 reached 21. , 6 million tons, up 2.6% over the same period.

Forecast for domestic cement consumption next time, the Chairman of the Vietnam Cement Association emphasized: From the second quarter of 2021, the cement market will continue to be stable and well developed. In the context of the Covid -19 epidemic in Vietnam has been effectively prevented, along with the restart of real estate projects, construction and general recovery of the economy, production output and consumption of products. Cement is expected to increase. In particular, after the successful Party Congress, the Party and the Government will continue to promote the development of infrastructure for the country, especially transport infrastructure, urban areas, a series of public investment projects such as expressways. North – South or ring roads in big cities will be built, boosting the growth of Construction industry in the period of 2021 – 2025 and cement consumption will increase.

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