“We are also trying to convert the old cryogenic tankers used for transporting nitrogen into tankers for transporting oxygen,” Oommen added.

The sale of construction steel hit 855,000 tonnes, a year-on-year surge of 17 percent. Exports of the item topped 147,000 tonnes, up 10 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.

Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh took the second spot with output of 1.62 million tonnes, 20 percent lower than Hoa Phat.

The project is expected to be built in three years and become operational in 2024.

China Baowu and China Zhongwang are the world's largest iron and Steel Group and the world's second largest industrial aluminum extrusion enterprise respectively. The high-level meeting between them is enough to arouse market expectations.

Broken down by districts, here’s production for the week ending April 17, 2021 in thousands of net tons: North East: 164; Great Lakes: 603; Midwest: 183; Southern: 747 and Western: 73 for a total of 1770.

The U.S. imported a total of 2,292,000 net tons (NT) of steel in March 2021.