Hanoi(VNA) – Hoa Phat Group, the largest steel maker in the country, exported over40,000 tonnes of construction steel in February, almost tripling that of thesame period last year.

Dramatic surgewas seen in exports to Canada, which accounted for 54.4 percent of the totalexports. It was followed by Thailand and Malaysia.

The company’ssales of construction steel last month hit 205,000 tonnes, bringing the totalsales in the first two months of 2020 to 381,000 tonnes, including 69,000tonnes exported.

The Februarysteel sales in the southern region hit 54,810 tonnes while sales in the northern and central regions amounted over86.5 tonnes and 23.9 tonnes, respectively.

Aside fromfinished products, the firm supplied 170,000 tonnes of high-quality billets tofactories in Asia, including Thailand and Indonesia.

In April, thesteel maker plans to test the hot-rolled coil (HRC) production line as part ofthe second phase of the Hoa Phat – Dung Quang steel integrated complex.

Hoa Phat Groupexported more than 265,000 tonnes of construction steel in 2019, up 11.3percent year on year, the multi-sectoral conglomerate reported.

Some of itsforeign markets include the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia,Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei.

Among them,Cambodia was the largest, to which Hoa Phat shipped 151,000 tonnes of steel,accounting for over 50 percent of the total export volume.

It wasfollowed by Japan (55,000 tonnes), Canada (20,000 tonnes), the US and Malaysia,which are all demanding markets, proving the competitiveness and quality of HoaPhat steel in the global market, the group said.

For 2020, the multi-sectorconglomerate aims to ship 400,000 tonnes of construction steel abroad,equivalent to nearly 10 percent of its sale target./.