The government leader emphasizes the sustainable development of the building materials industry

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh made the statement while chairing an online conference on removing difficulties and promoting the production and consumption of cement, iron and steel and construction materials.

In his opening speech, the head of the Vietnamese government emphasized the importance of cement, iron and steel and construction materials as the basic materials for the construction of technical infrastructure facilities, civil and industrial works, airports, ports, defense and security projects, as well as urban and industrial facilities. rural infrastructure systems.

Thanks to government policies combined with the involvement of sectors, localities and enterprises; The cement, iron and steel and building materials industries have experienced extraordinary growth over the past 10 years. Accordingly, approximately $20 billion has been invested in cement to achieve a total production of 122 million tonnes per year, placing it among the world’s leading cement producers.

The steel industry recorded a high growth rate of 14.25% on average during 2011-2022, with steel production in 2022 increasing five times compared to the 2011 value. Especially during the period 2016-2022, the steel industry achieved a very high growth rate growth averaging 27.11% per year.

However, in recent years, under the influence of many unfavorable factors at home and abroad and stagnation on the real estate market; the production of cement, iron and steel, and construction materials decreased.

The total production of cement and clinker last year was only 92.9 million tons, which was only 75% of the total designed production capacity, while the total consumption reached 87.8 million tons, which is 88% compared to 2022.

Structural steel production amounted to 10,655 million tons, a decrease of 12.2% compared to the previous year, and consumption amounted to 10,905 million tons, a decrease of 11.2% compared to 2022.

Prime Minister Chinh emphasized that the conference is of great importance in achieving the goal of finding solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles in the pursuit of increasing the production and consumption of cement, iron and steel, and construction materials in the coming time. This should be done by focusing on intensifying the provision of public investment projects, social housing, national target programs for new rural construction and other important projects.

Chinh said the production and consumption of cement, iron and steel and building materials in recent times should be carefully assessed and analyzed, Chinh stressed, while stressing the need to explain why the consumption of cement, iron and steel and building materials from 2023 to the present has significantly increased fell without achieving the set goal.

The head of the cabinet also noted a number of difficulties and challenges in production, domestic consumption and exports, such as rising fuel costs, a slowdown in the domestic real estate market and increasing countermeasures in trade with other countries.

It is necessary to develop solutions, identify objective and subjective causes, lessons learned and clarify the specific roles and responsibilities of all sectors and relevant agencies in removing bottlenecks, he added.