Electricity Price Hike to Cost Additional VND175 Bln for Steel Industry

The steel industry will have to pay an additional VND175 billion (US$10.35 million) this year from electricity price hike which is set to start from early March, said Pham Chi Cuong, chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).

 

According an estimate by steel enterprises, the new electricity price will increase cost for steel production by VND70,000 per ton while steel companies plan to produce 2.5 million tons of steel ingots this year.

 

Despite the rise in power rate, steel enterprises have not yet thought about raising steel prices as steel purchasing power is still very low now, Cuong said, adding steel sales stood at 150,000 tons in January, down 20 per cent on-month while there is now a large steel volume in stock.

 

The Prime Minister February 12 decided to hike domestic retail electricity prices by 8.92 per cent to VND948.5 (US$5.57 cents) per kWh excluding value-added tax (VAT) from the current VND860 (US$5.05 cents) from early March. (HCMC Law)