HANOI, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's domestic steel prices are expected to rise in the near future, thanks to increasing consumption demand, according to Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) on Wednesday.
Nguyen Van Sua, VSA's vice chairman said the selling price of steel billets and bars in Vietnam had risen since July.
Specifically, steel billet prices increased from 300-310 U.S. dollars per ton in July to 315-325 U.S. dollars per ton at the beginning of August. The prices of steel bars also climbed from 308-315 U.S. dollars per ton to 330-338 U.S. dollars per ton, Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA quoted Sua as saying on Wednesday.
The insider said steel prices could go up further in the final months of this year thanks to rising steel billet prices, real estate market's recovery and high construction demand.
Reports from VSA showed that the steel output of its members in July reached 1.4 million tons, up 13.6 percent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, steel sales in July reached more than 1.2 million tons, up 27.3 percent year-on-year, and 20 percent higher over June.
Sua said the surge in both steel production and consumption showed that domestic steel producers could meet the demand for construction steel.
However, steel businesses should further improve their products' quality and reduce production costs to offer more competitive prices, Sua proposed.
In July, Vietnam's exports of steel products posted a 57 percent year-on-year rise to reach 246,500 tons. In seven-month period, the country earned some 988 million U.S. dollars from exporting 1.783 million tons of steel.
