Hanoi (VNA) - Steel manufacturer Hoa Phat Group sold over 184,000 tonnes of steel pipes in the first three months of this year, a 27 percent increase against the same period last year and giving it the lead in market share, with 30.2 percent.

Nearly 7,000 tonnes of pipes were shipped to the US, Australia, and Canada during the period, a year-on-year rise of 31 percent. 

Sales of its steel sheets, meanwhile, neared 74,000 tonnes in the first quarter, triple the figure posted in the same period last year.

Steel pipe exports contributed 4 percent to total sales, while shipments of coated steel sheets accounted for 45 percent.

Hoa Phat has to date inked deals to export products to the end of July, primarily to Europe, the US, and Mexico.

In March alone, sale of steel pipes exceeded 90,000 tonnes, growing 73 percent year-on-year, while that of steel sheets totalled 31,000 tonnes, a four-fold increase year-on-year.

Of the figure, steel sheet exports doubled and neared 14,000 tonnes.

The combined capacity of Hoa Phat’s steel pipe factories around the country currently stands at 1 million tonnes a year, with steel sheet production reaching 400,000 tonnes.

The steelmaker has set a target for the year of producing 20,000 tonnes of steel pipes and about 330,000 tonnes of coated steel sheets./.