Thai Nguyen Steel, a state-owned longs re-roller in Vietnam, has reported net profit of VND 208.59 billion ($9.22 million) in the first nine months of 2016. This is almost triple the VND 71.87 billion it earned a year previously. The Vietnamese construction market has boomed but the boost to results came from a reduction in costs, Kallanish notes.

The company’s revenues increased 1.04% year-on-year to VND 6.1 trillion as nine-month operating costs dropped -1.57% to VND 5.53 trillion.

Thai Nguyen has 550,000 tonnes/year of rolling capacity and can produce wire rod, rebar and light sections. The company has until recently been burdened by an unsuccessful plan to build a 500,000 t/y integrated steelworks, which it has now been forced to abandon. The project had pushed the company into deep debt and local authorities had warned that unless the investment was cancelled the company could go bankrupt.