Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG) has earned revenues of THB21,244 million ($607.5 million) from its Vietnam operations in the first half of this year.
SCG, among the biggest businesses in Thailand, recorded global revenues of THB253,379 million ($7.25 billion) in the period, down 17% year-on-year, mainly due to lower chemicals prices. Sector-wise, chemicals accounted for 38% of the H1 revenue, cement-building materials, 36%, and packaging, 26%.
Geographically, Thailand, the home market, accounted for the biggest portion with 57%, followed by the ASEAN bloc (without Thailand) with 23%, and other overseas markets with 20%.
Within the ASEAN, Vietnam was SCG’s second-biggest market after Thailand. Other major markets in the bloc were Indonesia with H1 revenues of THB17,652 million ($505 million) and Cambodia with THB6,059 million ($173.3 million).
On the construction market, SCG said the Vietnamese market saw subdued demand, partly due to an economic slowdown resulting from weak exports and low number of new residential projects.
Reviewing the progress of its Long Son Petrochemicals (LSP) project in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, SCG said the project has successfully conducted downstream startup and upstream mechanical completion-commissioning. The next steps are to conduct an upstream test run and an upstream startup. The startup of LSP represents an increase of 42% in SCG Chemicals’ nameplate capacity, the Thai firm said.
The $5.4-billion LSP complex will have a capacity of 1.35 million tons per annum (MTA) of olefins, including 950 kilotons per annum (KTA) of ethylene; 400 KTA of propylene; 100 KTA of butadiene; and 1.4 MTA of polyolefins, including 500 KTA of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), 500 KTA of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and 400 KTA of polypropylene (PP).
Vietnam’s domestic PE/PP market was estimated at three tons per annum in 2022.