Foreign investors keep unloading shares of Vietnam steel major Hoa Phat

Foreign shareholders have been net selling shares of Vietnam’s top steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HoSE: HPG) over the past three months amid the firm’s pressures both domestically and overseas.

On Monday, foreign players net sold 5.7 million HPG shares worth VND149 billion ($6 million), marking the 14th consecutive net unloading day.

The ticker HPG ended down 0.2% at VND26,000 ($1.05) a share on Monday.

So far this month, they have sold 67.4 million HPG shares worth VND1,736 billion ($69.92 million), according to exchange data. The amount is equivalent to 1.05% of total outstanding shares.

Since June, foreign investors have net sold 117.3 million HPG shares, valued at VND3,168 billion ($127.37 million). During this three-month period, the stock lost 13% from the VND30,000/share zone, equivalent to a decline of VND25,600 billion ($1.03 billion) in market cap.

The foreign investors’ selling force and the fall in the HPG market price coincide with antidumping investigations into the company’s hot-rolled coil (HRC) products in major markets like the EU, India and possibly Australia.

Meanwhile, at home, Hoa Phat is losing ground to cheaper HRC imports from China and India. The Vietnamese trade ministry has announced the official launch of an antidumping probe into HRC products from those two markets at HPG’s petition.

According to BSC Research, if the ministry levies an antidumping tariff, Hoa Phat and Taiwan’s Formosa Ha Tinh can raise their domestic output by 1.5-3 million tons.

Hoa Phat’s Dung Quat 2 steel mill, with an annual capacity of 5.6 million tons of HRC, is expected to come online in Q1/2025. Between April and June, the group injected VND15,584 billion ($618.3 million) into the project.

Worse still, HRC prices now hover around $672 a ton, down 39% so far this year and two-thirds from their peak in September 2021.

Hoa Phat earned a consolidated net profit of VND6,190 billion ($245.6 million) in H1/2024, a 3.33-fold increase year-on-year, according to its financial statements. Its revenue rose 25.5% to VND70,408 billion ($2.84 billion).

This year, the group aims for a net profit of VND10 trillion ($402 million) on revenue of VND140 trillion.

Once the Dung Quat 2 mill is operational, the group’s revenue is estimated to reach VND200 trillion ($8 billion), and the steel business will likely account for 95% of its revenue, up from 85-90% currently.