Tundra fund hails Hoa Phat Group for sustainable development

According to a survey on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) of Tundra Fonder (headquarter in Stockholm, Sweden) announced recently, Hoa Phat Group (HPG) reached 7.5 out of 10 points, much higher than the avarage requirement of Tundra. The assessment also revealed that Hoa Phat Group has a firm ESG policy system.

Utilizing the surplus heat for electricity production has helped Hoa Phat take initiative in 50 per cent of electricity production in Hoa Phat Hai Duong Steel Complex.

When compared with other Vietnamese companies in the same portfolio, Hoa Phat's score is higher than the average (6.1). When compared with other companies in the same industry, Hoa Phat's score is also higher than the average (5.9) thanks to serious and methodical production and business investment, compliance with regulations of related laws.

For the environment in steel production, the Hoa Phat Integrated Steel complexes in Hai Duong and Dung Quat all use closed circulating blast furnace technology. All waste, waste gas and water are treated to meet the current standards in heavy industrial production.

Regarding social responsibility and community development, with the continuous expansion of production and business and towards sustainable development of steel core business, Hoa Phat has directly changed the social life of tens of thousands of families throughout Vietnam. In recent years, Hoa Phat has always achieved revenue growth of about 15-20 per cent a year, the average income of 20,000 employees has been constantly improved.

Hoa Phat also spent tens of billions of Vietnamese dong each year on social security, sponsoring the construction of electric and stationary welfare works in localities such as Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Ha Giang and Quang Ngai provinces. It also sponsors congenital heart surgeries for poor children and a variety of other social responsibility programmes.

Utilization of residual heat for electricity production has helped Hoa Phat take initiative in 50 per cent of electricity production in Hoa Phat Hai Duong Steel Complex, and 60-70 per cent of electricity produced in the Hoa Phat Dung Quat iron and steel integrated complex when the project goes into stable operation, contributing to saving thousands of billion dong each year. Recirculating mechanism using water and not discharging production water to the environment have not only protected the environment better but also saved tens of billions of dong for Hoa Phat Group every year.

Solid wastes in steel production such as blast furnace and steel slag are reused or processed as construction material products. At the beginning of 2018, Hoa Phat started to introduce the fine slag S95, to turn waste into a valuable product for the construction industry, generating hundreds of billion dong in revenue for the group a year.

This is the second time Tundra has conducted an assessment to analyze aspects of the company's sustainable development. The analysis is based on Hoa Phat's response to the Tundra ESG survey together with information on the company's website, Bloomberg data, press releases and many other public sources. In total, there are 9 companies in 3 industrial countries in the review of Tundra in December 2018.

Hong Hanh