Cement exports rake in US$732 million over seven-month period

The national cement industry’s four major export markets over the past seven months included China, Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and Bangladesh.

After importing products for many years, since 2010 Vietnam has been exporting cement and clinker. Indeed, cement and clinker has since joined a group of the country’s billion-dollar export items to become the leading cement exporter in Southeast Asia in the process, with the cement industry witnessing extremely fast and impressive export growth.

This comes after the local cement industry witnessed strong export in 2018 and 2019 with production exceeding 30 million tonnes per year. In particular, 2018 became the first year that cement and clinker joined the billion-dollar export club, with a total turnover of US$1.25 billion and an output of 32 million tonnes.

Following this, 2019 saw cement and clinker continue to maintain their strong performance in terms of export volume, with total output hitting approximately 34 million tonnes worth US$1.39 billion, marking the second year it made the billion-dollar export club.

The Ministry of Construction therefore estimates that cement consumption for the entire industry this year will reach between 101 million and 103 million tonnes, an increase of between 4% and 5% from last year, of which domestic cement consumption will make up roughly 70 million tonnes, with 32 million to 34 million tonnes for export.

With this in mind, this level of consumption is based on estimates made in late 2019 and completely excludes the unexpected factor of the COVID-19 epidemic.