'Steel King' Tran Dinh Long talks about 'gentlemen protecting themselves'

Mr. Tran Dinh Long, Chairman of Hoa Phat Group, continuously mentioned the need to defend against unpredictable changes in the world situation, especially related to US reciprocal tariffs.

At the shareholders' meeting on the morning of April 17, Mr. Tran Dinh Long shared: "After April 2, when the US announced the imposition of reciprocal tariffs, stocks fell significantly. In addition to my work at Hoa Phat , I also have many relationships and see that the general situation is that future developments are still very unpredictable.

Currently, the US has temporarily postponed tariffs for 90 days with 75 countries, but basically the world economy will have many fluctuations, and it is not known in which direction they will fluctuate.

Faced with this situation, Mr. Long said Hoa Phat had to switch to a defensive position.

“In terms of spirit, we are very good at defending, working methodically and carefully. Up to now, public opinion has often said that Hoa Phat is a bit conservative, but we are very careful about that. With the current situation, we must also be on guard against many possibilities. If the negotiations are good and the economy adapts well to US taxes, the economy can still grow, including Hoa Phat.

Mr. Tran Dinh Long, Chairman of Hoa Phat Group. Photo: HH

“But a gentleman defends himself - if the situation is bad or very bad, we need to have a positive and cautious view, taking sustainable development as the top priority,” Mr. Long shared.

“I am very happy that when we announced that we would not pay dividends, we received a lot of sympathy. We hope that shareholders will support us because we don’t know what will happen in the next 3 quarters,” Mr. Long said, adding that if there are no major changes, we will pay dividends again in the coming years.

Regarding the production of high-speed railway tracks and other types of railway tracks, Mr. Tran Dinh Long shared: "In the meeting in September 2024, when the Prime Minister invited large enterprises to contribute to the country's economy and assigned tasks, he asked us and we agreed to produce train tracks."

"We have a rail production project at Dung Quat 2 Complex, with a total investment of 14,000 billion VND. This is a very new and difficult project because it must meet high quality standards and has never been produced in Vietnam before," Mr. Long informed.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/vua-thep-tran-dinh-long-noi-ve-viec-quan-tu-phong-than-2392139.html