Displaying items by tag: Vietnam

Vietnam: Vietnam exported 2.98Mt of cement and clinker worth US$113m in May 2025, up by 17% in volume and 12% in value year-on-year, according to the government’s National Statistics Office. Between January and May 2025, exports totalled 14.18Mt worth US$523m, marking a 6% rise in volume and 2% in value year-on-year. In 2024, the country exported 29.67Mt of cement and clinker for US$1.14bn, down by 5% in volume and 14% in value from 2023.

Vietnam: The government will allocate greenhouse gas emission quotas to cement and steel plants and thermal power facilities by 31 December 2025, following a new decree issued on 9 June 2025, which takes effect on 1 August 2025. These facilities will receive quotas during the 2025–2026 period. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, in coordination with the ministries of industry and trade and construction, will lead the pilot proposal process and submit total allowable emissions to the prime minister for approval. Quotas for each plant must be finalised by the end of 2025. From 2027, ministries will propose lists of facilities and quotas for 2027–2028 and 2029–2030, with submissions due by 30 June of the first year of each period. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will allocate quotas by 31 October annually once approved.

Quotas will be based on emission intensity per unit of product, industry growth targets and each facility’s potential to reduce emissions. Facilities may trade quotas and carbon credits on the national market. The decree also revises rules on trading, borrowing, transferring and surrendering quotas. Facilities must surrender quotas equal to verified emissions, minus carbon credit offsets, by 31 December following each compliance period. Penalties and future deductions will apply to those who fail.

Vietnam: Vietnam produced 73.4Mt of cement in the first five months of 2025, up by 13% year-on-year, according to the National Statistics Office. In May 2025, output reached 17.3Mt, marking a 25% year-on-year rise. In 2024, Vietnam produced 184Mt of cement, up by 3.5% year-on-year.

Vietnam: Siam Cement Group Vietnam (SCG Vietnam) recorded sales of US$301m in the first quarter of 2025, 43% of group regional sales outside of Thailand.

SCG Vietnam hosted Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at its US$5.5bn Long Son petrochemicals complex earlier in 2025, when it announced that currently planned investments will target the petrochemicals division, as opposed to cement. It acquired the Sông Gianh cement plant in Quảng Bình for US$156m in 2017.

Vietnam: The government has reduced cement clinker export tax from 10% to 5%, effective from 19 May 2025 to the end of 2026. The 10% rate will be reinstated on 1 January 2027.

The Ministry of Finance said the temporary measure is an effort to help local manufacturers adjust production and reduce their inventory amid falling demand. Only 77% of Vietnam’s 122Mt/yr cement capacity is currently in use, with 34 out of 92 lines suspending operations in 2024. Cement and clinker exports fell by 5% to 29.7Mt in 2024, with revenues down by 14% year-on-year to US$1.14bn. Clinker exports alone were valued at US$301m.

Vietnam: Vietnam produced 55.9Mt of cement in the first four months of 2025, up by 9% year-on-year, according to data from the National Statistics Office. In April 2025, output rose by 7.5% year-on-year to 16.8Mt. The country produced 184.2Mt in 2024, up by 3.5% year-on-year.

Vietnam: VICEM Ha Tien Cement recorded a net loss of US$374m in the first quarter of 2025, down from US$952m a year earlier, despite an 11% rise in cement consumption and a 6% increase in revenues to US$61.2m, according to the Vietnam National Cement Association.

The company targets 5.83Mt of cement and 530,000t of clinker sales in 2025, aiming for US$276m in revenue and US$7.1m in profit, which it will reportedly achieve through tightening cost control and diversify output.

President Trump said he was going to do it… and he did. The US announced tariffs on most imports on 2 April 2025 that took effect from 5 April 2025. So, once again, we ask what the consequences of this might be upon the cement sector.

Table 1: Estimated burden of US tariffs on selected countries importing cement based on 2024 data. Source: Based on USGS data.

Global Cement Magazine Editorial Director Robert McCaffrey posted a similar table to the one above on LinkedIn on 4 April 2025. It applies the new import tariffs to the value of imported hydraulic cement and clinker to the US in 2024 as reported by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). As such it gives us a starting idea of how the new tariffs might change what happens in 2025. For an idea of the volumes of cement imported to the US in recent years refer to the graph in GCW695.

However, a couple of key caveats were pointed out by commentators to that LinkedIn post. Marty Ozinga noted that the values from the USGS are customs values. Crucially, he said that the tariffs will be charged upon the FOB value of cement at the point of origin and not on the transport costs. This is significant because the cost of moving the cement can sometimes be more than half the total values reported in the table for certain countries. Another commentator wanted to make it clear that tariffs on imports are imposed upon the supply chain and are paid somewhere along it, typically by end users, rather than the originating country. Elsewhere, the feeling was very much one of waiting to see what would happen next and how markets would reorder.

Taken at face value, the first takeaway from Table 1 is that the variable tariffs disrupt the competitiveness of the importers. Any importer from a country with the lowest rate, 10%, now has an advantage over those with higher ones. Türkiye seems to be the obvious winner here as it was both the largest importer of cement in 2024 and it has the lowest rate. Vietnam appears to be a loser with a massive 46% rate. Canada and Mexico may have problems with a 25% tariff but how their cement gets to the US market may make a big difference as Ozinga mentions above. And so it goes down the list. What may be significant is how the order of the importers further down the list changes. For example, Algeria has a 30% rate compared to Egypt’s 10%. Both nations exported a similar volume of cement to the US in 2024.

The first casualty of the last week has been market certainty. The US announced the tariffs and stock markets slumped around the world. They started to revive on 8 April 2025 as the US government made more reassuring noises about trade talks but this was dampened by renewed fears of a US - China trade war. The orthodox economic view is that the US tariffs are increasingly likely to cause a recession in the US in the short term regardless of whether they have a more positive effect on the longer one. This view can be detected in former PCA economist Ed Sullivan’s latest independent report on the US economy. He acknowledged the fairness argument the US government has made, but warned of stagflation.

On the US construction market, prices look set to rise in areas that previously relied on imports or are near to them. Cement companies in the US should be able to sell higher volumes as some level of domestic production outcompetes imports. The sector produced 86Mt in 2024 and has a capacity of 120Mt/yr giving it a utilisation rate of 72%. It imported 20 - 25Mt of cement in 2024. One sign of this happening might be renewed investment in local capacity through upgrades, new lines and even new plants. However, a recession would reduce overall consumption. On the equipment side, there is likely to be a similar readjustment between local and foreign suppliers. Certainly, if the tariffs stick around then more non-US companies may be tempted to set up local subsidiaries and /or manufacturing bases if conditions permit. For example, note JCB’s doubling in size this week of a plant it is building in Texas. One interesting situation might occur if a US cement company wants to build a new production line. All the likely suppliers, at present at least, appear to be based outside of the US.

Finally, despite everything, Holcim declared this week that it had completed a $3.4bn bond offering ahead of the impending spin-off of Amrize in the US noting “strong investor interest in the future company.” It wants to shore-up confidence ahead of the creation of the new company at some point in the first half of the year. Holcim’s CEO said previously that he didn’t expect any blowback from tariffs as the company was a local business in the US. What may be worth watching for is whether the current disruption to stock markets causes any delays to the creation of Amrize.

The current situation with the tariffs is prompting a rapid-revaluation of the US construction market and the wider economy. US-based building materials companies look set to benefit but there may be disruption along the way. Foreign companies supplying the sector may well experience sharp changes in circumstances depending on how tariffs reorder supply chains. Prices for end-users look set to rise. We live in interesting times.

For Ed Sullivan’s take on the US cement sector read his article in the May 2025 issue of Global Cement Magazine

Vietnam: Cement production rose by 4% year-on-year to 36.9Mt in the first quarter of 2025, according to the General Statistics Office. In March 2025, output reached 14.4Mt, up by 1.5% year-on-year. In 2024, the country produced 184.2Mt, an increase of 3.5% year-on-year.

Vietnam: The government will allocate greenhouse gas emissions quotas to 150 facilities across the cement, thermal power and steel sectors, according to a draft decree discussed by the government. Under the proposed roadmap, quota allocation will be implemented in phases over the next five years.

These sectors account for 40% of national emissions, according to the Vietnam Investment Review, and are also subject to the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism. The draft decree proposes decentralised development of technical regulations and mutual recognition of carbon credit data with international partners. Quotas will be proposed annually by ministries and submitted to the prime minister for approval.

 Deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha said “This is a technical decree with many variables. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will provide a controlled framework and guiding principles using a ‘sandbox’ approach, allowing businesses to experiment while regulators monitor, evaluate and make adjustments.”