HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s index of industrial production (IIP) scored a growth of 10.9 per cent in the first seven months of this year, up 7.1 per cent against the same period last year, the General Statistics Office announced.

The country’s industrial production has maintained high growth since the start of the year, with a rise of 11.6 per cent in the first quarter and 10.5 per cent in the first half.

The primary processing and manufacturing sector, which accounts for three-fourths of the whole industry, recorded a strong expansion of 13.1 per cent, contributing 9.9 percentage points to the industry’s growth.

Electricity manufacturing and production increased 10.7 per cent.

Some sectors in the secondary industry (dominated by the manufacture of finished products) also saw high growth, such as coke and refined oil production (up 64.1 per cent), mineral mining support services (up 25.2 per cent), and electronics, computers and optical products (up 16.4 per cent).

Two big oil refineries started operation in the first six months, including Bình Sơn Refining and Petrochemical JSC in Quảng Ngãi Province (completed maintenance) and Nghi Sơn Refining and Petrochemical LLC in Thanh Hóa Province (finished construction and began operation), which helped raise the production value.

Many primary products rose substantially against the same period last year, including crude steel (up 41.1 per cent), passenger cars (32.9 per cent), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (up 32.7 per cent), synthetic fibres (up 19.1 per cent), refined sugar (up 18.9 per cent), seafood feed (up 18.5 per cent) and televisions (up 14 per cent).

However, some products saw declines in production due to lower demand, such as crude oil (down 11.3 per cent), mobile phones (down 0.9 per cent), urea fertiliser (down 3.5 per cent).

All 63 cities and provinces posted higher growth in industrial production against 2017’s corresponding period, of which Hà Tĩnh was the leader with a growth of 149.3 per cent (thanks to the steel manufacturing by Formosa Hà Tĩnh Steel Corporation), followed by Thanh Hóa (where Nghi Sơn Refining and Petrochemical LLC started operations). — VNS