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 Growing demand for cars in Vietnam has led to BlueScope Steel helping a national company develop a new business – in garage doors.
The garage door business has substantial potential in the country, judging by the number of motor vehicles appearing on the nation’s roads. Hanoi’s cars have tripled in the last decade to about 150,000, and are expected to triple again, but this time in only five years.
There are now more than 600,000 cars on Vietnam’s roads, and while growth is artificially restrained by heavy taxes, 27,000 new cars are expected to be registered this year. Recognising this exploding market, local trading house Hung Phat Co formed a garage door company called Austdoor in 2003.
Austdoor currently sources rolling steel doors in CKD kits from Gliderol out of Taiwan, each employing a curtain made from recently improved Clean COLORBOND® steel. By the end of this year, however, the company expects to open its own plant in Vietnam, coinciding with the commissioning of BlueScope Steel’s own new factory there. Mike Courtnall, President Asian Building & Manufacturing Markets, BlueScope Steel’s President, Asia, Mike Courtnall, last month travelled to Vietnam to formalise a partnering agreement with Hung Phat Co in recognition of their ambitious plans. “Our commitment to Austdoor is to supply Clean COLORBOND® steel to match the company’s output of 2500 garage doors,” Scott Beasley, Vice President Marketing of BlueScope Steel, Vietnam, said. “The commissioning of our own plant means we will be able to provide Austdoor with shorter lead times on smaller volumes and increase our level of technical service.” With Vietnam’s construction industry expanding at 15 per cent a year, there is big demand also for rolling steel doors for industrial and commercial application.
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