Vietnam’s biggest producer of construction steel also reported a 30 percent rise in first-half profit to VND5 trillion ($217 million).

The company attributed the surge in profits to rising sales. It sold over 1.5 million tons of construction and rolled steel in the first half, up 12.4 percent year-on-year. Exports rose 67 percent to 203,000 tons.

Hoa Phat also has interests in agriculture and animal husbandry, and profit from this surged 22 times in the second quarter to VND360 billion ($15.6 million).

But profits from property fell by 85 percent to VND30 billion ($1.3 million).