Steelmaking industry: Malaysia removes anti-dumping duties for Vietnamese iron and steel
Malaysian regulator, MITI, decided to lift the anti-dumping duties applied on cold-rolled steel (CRC) and non-alloy steel having width of over 1,300mm imported Viet Nam and Korea but not Japan and China. Hoa Sen Group (HSG VN) accounted for 41.4% of CRC production in Q1 2025 but not recording details in sales volume. Meanwhile, the Thep Xanh Complex project by Xuan Thien Group (privately held) started its construction phase. The complex expects a total capex of VND98 trillion (about USD3.75 billion), resulting an annual production of 9.5 million tons of steel alongside with 21,000 job vacancies available. It may come into operation in mid-2028 before 100% completed in mid-2030.
VNG Corporation (VNZ VN): A new focus on AI
Mr. Le Hong Minh – the only Co-founder left and also the Chairman of the Board, disclosed that VNG is investing in AI at all three levels:
(1) Infrastructure: A year ago, VNG co-established an AI Cloud Data Centre in Bangkok, Thailand with NVIDIA (NVDA US) and the Temasek-backed STT GDC.
(2) Platform: VNG introduced its Model-as-a-service (MaaS), allowing developer-clients to access pre-built models and to deploy their own AI models with ease.
(3) Application: all applications by VNG has used AI in daily operations to improve overall performances despite not generating direct revenue. For example, 20% out of nearly 78 million Zalo monthly active users (MAUs) used AI tools embedded on Zalo by 2024 and VNG wants to increase this proportion up to 40% at year-end 2025.
VNG VN was last traded at VND345,000 per share on 23rd June 2025, implying 13.5x P/B while P/E was still negative.
Minh Phu Seafood (MPC VN): Back to profitability
Mr. Le Van Quang – The Founder CEO of Minh Phu Seafood disclosed that the company had to deal with abundance of inventories aggressively in the last two years by underselling, resulting huge financial losses but its cash position secured. In Q1 2025, the national largest shrimp producer cleared its excessive inventories successfully and kept the balance in check, thus netting profit of VND18 billion (about USD0.7 million) this quarter. Therefore, the company is expecting profit of at least VND100 billion (about USD3.8 million) in this June period, and every month afterwards, completing the target profit of VND997 billion this year. Foreign institutional investor - Mitsui & Co. - via its vehicle, Mpm Investments Pte. Ltd., has owned 35.1% interest since 2019, while the Chairman of MPC and his family has been holding about 39.7% interest. MPC VN was last traded at VND13,000 per share on 23rd June 2025, suggesting 1.1x P/B while P/E was still negative.
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