Hoa Phat to suspend blast furnace for maintenance

HCMC – Vietnamese steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG) has announced plans to suspend operations at its blast furnace in the northern province of Hai Duong for maintenance, starting in September.

The downtime is projected to last three months.

The decision follows the reopening of Hoa Phat’s final blast furnace in Dung Quat in July, with an annual capacity of 1.4 million tons.

SSI Research, the analysis division of SSI Securities Corporation, has forecast a potential improvement in the company’s production in the third quarter of 2023 due to this development.

However, analysts foresee a possible dip in production between September and November 2023 as Hoa Phat is set to temporarily shut down its blast furnace No. 3 in Hai Duong for maintenance. The furnace, contributing 1.2 million tons per year, represents 14% of the steelmaker’s total capacity.

Despite the news, the company’s stock HPG rose by a substantial 2.21% to VND27,800 today, August 9. The Hochiminh Stock Exchange, meanwhile, ended down today, August 9, with the VN-Index falling by 8.24 points, or 0.66%, to close at 1,233.99 points, with 215 winners and 276 losers.

Trade on the bourse totaled nearly 1.1 million shares worth VND21.7 trillion, down 8% in volume and 6% in value day-on-day. Block deals contributed VND1.8 trillion to the overall value, with 81.2 million shares changing hands.

In the VN30 basket, HPG and STB were the only gainers, with 27 bluechips dipping. The VN30-Index lost 7.97 points to 1,239.84 points.

VHM fell the steepest, with a drop of 3.5% to VND60,600 per share. This translated into 2.4 negative points for the main index, with nearly 5.6 million VHM shares transacted.

GVR lost 2% at VND22,150 per share. Other bluechips slid between 0.2% and 1.9%. Lender TCB stayed at its reference price of VND34,000 per share.

Housing developer NVL took the lead by liquidity on the southern market, with a matching volume of 44.7 million shares, closely followed by HPG with more than 42.6 million shares traded.

NVL inched down 2.2% to VND19,900 per share, while HPG gained 2.2% to VND27,800 per share.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index slipped by 0.19 point, or a fractional 0.08%, closing at 245.88 points.

Trading volume on this bourse reached 126.3 million shares, valued at nearly VND1.9 trillion.

The post Hoa Phat to suspend blast furnace for maintenance appeared first on The Saigon Times.