[Vietnam] Vietnam’s steel exports rise in 7M 2026, but trade deficit exceeds $2 billion

Hoa Phat Group (HPG) met with domestic and international investment funds on August 13, with investors showing strong interest in the progress of its Dung Quat special rail and steel rail factory. The project, with a designed capacity of 700,000 tonnes/year, is currently around 60% complete, with the first furnace for high-speed rail products expected to launch in Q1 2027. Hoa Phat also plans to expand its railway steel production facilities by nearly 77 hectares, potentially adding 2 million tonnes/year of capacity with additional investment of around VND 20 trillion. Investors also raised questions about the group’s real estate portfolio and clean-energy initiatives, including solar power projects aimed at reducing emissions and production costs.

As of the end of July, production of automotive FD outer panels on the No. 1 tandem cold rolling line at Bensteel Group POSCO had maintained stable operation for a full consecutive year, marking the official transition of high-end manufacturing capability from “bottleneck-constrained small-batch production” to a new stage of “high-quality, stable output.” While FD outer panel production doubled YoY, the product qualification rate also increased by 4.40%, fully demonstrating the lean transformation of Bensteel Group POSCO’s high-end automotive outer panel production from people-based management to system-based governance.

Dow Jones and SGX Group signed an index licensing agreement on August 13 to develop futures and swaps tracking the McCloskey Australian FOB Second-Tier HCC Index. The proposed products are intended to provide steelmakers, miners and physical traders with a more direct hedging tool for second-tier hard coking coal. They remain subject to regulatory procedures, while no formal launch date or complete contract specifications have been disclosed.