Vietnam would consume about 5.8 million tons of steel in 2010, up 10 percent compared to last year, predicted the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
Nguyen Tien Nghi, Vice Chairman if VSA, said in 2009 the country consumed some 5.3 million tons of construction and industrial steel products. The total consumption included 4.7 million tons produced by domestic enterprises and 600,000 tons imported from other countries. The prediction for steel consumption is based on the recovery of many economic sectors, added Nghi. According to VSA, the factory price of construction steel products are fluctuating between VND11.2 million and VND11.7 million per ton, excluding value-added tax.
Nghi predicted that prices of construction steel will not have sudden large increases this year. However, he said steel prices would go up slightly in the early months of the year because of higher prices of some production materials such as coal, iron ore and others.

South Korean steel major POSCO plans to produce 32 million tons of crude steel this year, compared to with under 30 million tons estimated in 2009.
The country's top steelmaker, meanwhile, will wrap up acquisition talks with Thailand's Thainox Stainless soon, as talks are going well, Lee Dong-hee, POSCO's president, said. Top managers of Thainox in December visited POSCO to discuss POSCO's possible acquisition of Southeast Asia's largest stainless steel producer. But the talks failed, although a POSCO spokeswoman at that time said discussions would probably resume soon. "Talks have been going well. We are expecting to conclude within a short period of time," Lee said.
Lee said POSCO's crude steel production would rise this year, as the company has no plans to reduce its operations, which have been at full throttle since the third quarter of last year. In October POSCO revised its 2009 crude steel output target down to 29.50 million tons from its previous 29.80 million tons. Asked if POSCO plans to raise steel product prices, Lee said, "While Chinese are raising prices, we have no plan yet."
POSCO made a surprise 20 percent price cut in May and has yet to announce any change, selling hot-rolled steel at $601.3 a ton. Over the upcoming talks with iron ore suppliers, Lee said, "Which side will be at the better position in the talks will be depending on the first-quarter steel market movements." POSCO has yet to negotiate raw material purchase deals for the new fiscal year starting in April.

Taiwan's iron and steel exports came to a value of $12.32 billion, down 32.5 percent, while its metal product exports totaled $7.03 billion, decreasing by 29.5 percent, both compared to 2008, said the figures released by the Taiwan Ministry of Finance.
In the January-November period of 2009, Taiwan's iron and steel imports declined by 53.5 percent to $7.62 billion, while its metal product imports totaled $7.57 billion, down 39.5 percent, both compared to 2008.
In December 2009, Taiwan's iron and steel exports decreased by 1.4 percent to $1.15 billion, while its metal product exports increased by 33 percent to $688.3 million, both compared to December 2008.
On the other hand, Taiwan's iron and steel imports in December totaled $908.3 million and its metal product imports amounted to $758.9 million. The year-on-year increase rates were 63.7 percent and 64.6 percent respectively.

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's second-largest steelmaker, began initial production at its first blast furnace, giving it capacity to make higher value products to compete with bigger rival POSCO.
Full production at the 4 million ton furnace in Dangjin, 123 kilometers south of the capital Seoul, will start in April, spokesman Park Cheon Tark said. A second furnace of the same capacity is due for completion next year, reports said.
The unit of Hyundai Motor Group is spending $5.1 billion on the two furnaces, which will allow the company to make automotive steel and heavy plates used in ships. Until the furnaces started, POSCO was the only Korean mill to make steel from blast furnaces, which burn iron ore and coal.
The furnaces may replace $8 billion of steel imports a year. South Korea, the world's sixth- biggest steelmaker, imports more than 20 million tons annually from countries including China and Japan. Hyundai Steel made 11 million tons in 2008 from electric- arc furnaces, which use scrap metal as a raw material. Construction-grade steel accounted for about 70 percent of its sales.

Pohang Steel Company (POSCO), the world's No.4 steelmaker, plans to continue cutting costs sharply and make record-high investments to cope with a potentially long recession, it said after reporting its strongest operating profit in five quarters.
Analysts said iron ore and coking coal costs were likely to rise later this year, which they said may force POSCO to raise steel product prices in the second quarter after a shock 20-percent cut last May. The company, however, is yet to negotiate raw material purchase deals with its suppliers for the new fiscal year in around April. Analysts have also warned that the unwinding of stimulus policies by governments around the world and a potentially disappointing pace of economic recovery could limit POSCO's earnings growth this year. It plans to nearly double its investment spending this year to 9.3 trillion won ($8.29 billion).
It also aims to increase crude steel production by 17 percent to 34.4 million tons. The first major Asian steelmaker to report results for the October-December quarter, POSCO posted a quarterly operating profit of 1.6 trillion won, meeting its own and analysts' forecasts, up from 1.4 trillion won a year earlier. It benefited from a drop in iron ore and coking coal contract prices, set to continue through the second quarter of this year. The company had forecast a full year operating profit of 3.2 trillion won, implying a 1.6 trillion won fourth quarter operating profit. Fourth-quarter revenue at POSCO, which ranks behind ArcelorMittal, Japan's Nippon Steel and China's Baosteel in world steel production, fell 12 percent to 7.3 trillion won from a year earlier. Analysts said POSCO was expected to post firm earnings growth this quarter, helped by strong demand from the auto and electronics industries on the back of a continued global economic recovery. They forecast the company would post a first quarter operating profit between 1.6 trillion won and 1.8 trillion won, which would be the highest since the nearly 2 trillion won it earned in the third quarter of 2008. Quarterly net profit rose 77 percent to 1.3 trillion won from a year earlier.

Nippon Steel Corp., the world's second-largest steelmaker, will deepen production cuts of H- beams for construction as demand for building materials wanes. The company will reduce February production of H-beams by more than 70 percent from normal levels, Masaru Sakai, group manager of the construction materials and products division, said at a briefing in Tokyo, without specifying the volume.
The company cut output in December by about 70 percent and said it would make a similar reduction for January. Japanese manufacturers scaled back capital investment, cutting the use of the metal for construction. Domestic demand for construction steel has trailed a recovery in orders for the alloy used in cars and electronics. H-beam stockpiles at Tokiwakai, a group of local distributors that sells products for Nippon Steel, were little changed at 228,900 at the end of December, the group said in a statement. That compares with 229,000 tons a month earlier.