Vietnam Cement Corporation (Vicem) is facing the most difficult difficulties in 120 years of operation when the consumption and export of Cement and clinker decline, input costs increase, and many factories have to produce handhelds. Stop or stop the oven… That is the comment of Vicem General Director Le Nam Khanh about the results of production and business activities in the first half of 2023.
Vicem Hoang Thach Cement Company
Photo: vicem.vn
According to statistics from the Vietnam Cement Association (VNCA), cement production in the first 6 months of 2023 reached 39 million tons, down 7% over the same period. The reason is that production costs increased sharply, and the lack of electricity forced cement businesses to recalculate their production and business plans this year.
Total cement consumption in this period reached 43 million tons, down 10%, of which cement consumption in the domestic market reached 29 million tons, down 8%. The export channel is also not possible. The difficult consumption situation in major markets such as China, Bangladesh, and the Philippines... made Vietnam's cement export volume drop to a record. Over the past 6 months, new cement businesses have sold 14 million tons, down 15% over the same period in 2022.
For Vicem, in the first 5 months of the year, the total main product consumption of this business reached 9.7 million tons with a total revenue of 13,701 billion VND.
Vicem leaders said that the current design capacity of cement factories in Vietnam is up to 120 million tons/year, while the demand for cement is only about 65 million tons, a surplus of nearly half. Currently, clinker inventory is very large, and must be dumped in outdoor yards, not only increasing production costs but also polluting the environment.
The reason for the above situation is that the real estate sector freezes, and the whole country has no major projects to start or build; China does not import cement from Vietnam. In that gas, the price of electricity, coal, materials, and input materials for cement production all increased significantly, making Vicem like standing on fire.
Determining the second half of 2023, the situation of the domestic and foreign cement market is still volatile, Vicem has proposed a series of solutions to maintain operations and ensure life and income for workers.
Next time, Vicem will focus on maintenance work, stable production maintenance; reducing the cost of repairing machinery and equipment, and consuming raw materials to improve production and business. At the same time, closely follow the actual situation, coordinate between the production and consumption sectors to review and develop scenarios, and flexibly choose appropriate production and business plans.
Continue to direct the member units to closely follow the developments of the consumption market, the price of input materials to have solutions to build the selling price, and flexible sales policy according to each type, location, and market. school. Strictly implement discipline in market coordination in terms of location and selling price to increase competitive strength and take advantage of member units' scale.
Along with that, diversifying export cement products to meet the import needs of customers and markets; researching and manufacturing new products, and meeting the quality requirements of fastidious markets.
(Cafeland)