HANOI, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam will build technical barriers to prevent imports of ill-quality steel or steel with unsuitable origins, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) on Tuesday.
The ministry made the proposal in its draft planning on steel production by 2025, with orientation to 2035.
Accordingly, other trade protection measures will be also imposed on steel products to ensure competitiveness of the country's domestic steel sector.
Statistics by the MoIT showed that Vietnam's domestic steel consumption can hit up to 27 million tons by 2020 and 46 million tons by 2030.
Currently, the nationwide steel producers have total capacity of some 24.8 million tons. During 2016-2020 period, new projects will be implemented to bring the capacity to some 40 million tons a year, said the MoIT on its website.
Such projects mentioned in the planning include Ca Na steel complex in southern coastal Ninh Thuan province, Nghi Son steel complex in central Thanh Hoa province, and Quang Ngai steel complex in central Quang Ngai province among others.
Specifically, Ca Na steel complex is set to become Vietnam's biggest steel project, which will be carried out in three phases with total investment of 10 billion U.S. dollars by local Hoa Sen Group.
The first phase of the project has a capacity of 4.5 million tons. By its completion in 2031, the project will expand its capacity with more than 7 million tons.
The planning also slashed 12 steel projects with total capacities of 7,870 tons of iron and steel due to their small scale, not guaranteed material sources, and weak investor capacity among others.
According to Vietnam Steel Association, the country's rising demand for steel is likely to spur production by 10-12 percent in 2017.
Vietnam's steel imports currently account for around 60 percent of market demand. The MoIT estimates Vietnam will spend some 15 billion U.S. dollars annually on steel imports by 2020. In 2016, the country will import about 17.5 million tons of steel.
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