In short: Harding Loevner (Emerging Markets Equity): "Vietnam's largest domestic steel producer with over 35% market share in construction steel." The advantage is cost structure, not cycle: "its fully integrated steel production model and modern asset base, featuring more efficient blast furnaces, which allow it to be the lowest cost producer in the country," reinforced "by favorable plant locations near the largest sources of demand and a dense distribution network," together enabling "consistent market share gains at the expense of smaller, higher-cost competitors." The growth is already built: the Dung Quat 2 complex completed in late 2025 "has expanded Hoa Phat's production capacity by roughly 60%," into rising domestic infrastructure spending. The policy kicker: "the Vietnamese government's recently imposed tariffs on Chinese steel imports should also lead to better pricing and margins." Framed as "a rare quality growth business in the cyclical steel industry."
Hoa Phat is Vietnam's largest steelmaker, with over 35% of the construction-steel market. Harding Loevner own it as a cost story rather than a commodity bet: it runs a fully integrated operation with modern, efficient blast furnaces, which makes it the cheapest producer in the country, and its plants sit near the biggest sources of demand with a dense distribution network attached.
In a commodity business, being lowest-cost means you keep making money when prices fall and smaller rivals do not — which is how Hoa Phat has kept gaining share. Growth is already banked rather than hoped for: a new complex completed in late 2025 lifted capacity by roughly 60%, arriving as Vietnam spends heavily on infrastructure. Vietnam has also just imposed tariffs on Chinese steel imports, which should let domestic producers charge more.
Their framing is that this is a rare thing — a quality growth business inside a cyclical industry — which also diversifies a portfolio full of the usual emerging-market technology names.
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