Semis Exports from ASEAN6 Surged by 53% YoY in Jan-Oct 2021

South East Asia Iron & Steel Institute announced that semi-finished steel export in ASEAN-6 continued to increase significantly in 2021, with a 52.8% increase to nearly 10 million tonnes in the first 10 months of 2021. Of the 6 countries in the region, Indonesia is the largest semi-finished steel exporting country, followed by Vietnam.

Indonesia’s semi-finished steel export increased from 1.6 million tonnes in the period January October 2020 to 4 million tonnes in the same period of 2021. 40% of the export is billet, of which the volume jumped around three folds to 1.7 million tonnes. Export of slab surged from 291,965 tonnes in the first 10 months of 2020 to 865,892 tonnes in the same period of 2021. Semi-finished stainless steel export nearly doubled in volume to 1.5 million tonnes. Most of the semi-finished steel export in Indonesia was to China, especially billet, carbon slab and stainless semi- finished steel.

Semi-finished steel export from Vietnam registered 3.5 million tonnes, an increase of 16%. Billet export was 1.8 million tonnes, an increase of 13% y-o-y. Around 80% of billet export was to China. Slab export rose by 8.7% to 1.5 million tonnes. Vietnam sent slab mostly to China and to other countries, including Philippines, Taiwan and Brazil.

The third largest exporting country in the region is Malaysia. It is well known that Malaysia’s export of billets started to surge significantly to a million tonnes since 2019. The export in the first 10 months of 2021 remained significant, but the volume declined by 34.7% to 800,763 tonnes. Export to China, which is the main destination dropped from a million tonnes in the first 10 months of 2020 to 726,000 tonnes in the same period in 2021.

Thailand’s export of semi-finished steel is usually as low as 100,000 tonnes per year. However, the export jumped from 94,928 tonnes in the first 10 months of 2020 to 562,984 tonnes in the same period of 2021. Export of billet surged to 377,709 tonnes and export of slab increased 165,734 tonnes. Nearly 70% of the export was billet and most of which was sent to China. Meanwhile, major destinations of slab export were Taiwan, Philippines and China.