The Vietnamese government plans to vigorously develop the metallurgical industry. Data show that in 2000, Vietnam's potential iron-making capacity was only about 270,000 tons/year, while the current pig iron capacity has exceeded 14 million tons/year, with the largest increase starting in 2017.

In 2009, the first 350,000 mt/y blast furnace was put into operation at Vietnam's Ho Pha United Steel Plant in Hai Dong Province, and the furnace capacity was increased to 450,000 MT/y in 2017. In July 2013, the 450,000 tons/year No. 2 blast furnace of the plant began operation, and its annual production capacity increased to 530,000 tons/year in 2018. Both blast furnaces are connected to a converter smelting plant and are used to produce billets with a total billet capacity of 850,000 tonnes/year.

In September 2014, after three years of construction, the Vietnam-China Minerals & Metallurgy Co., Ltd. steel plant in Laojie Province, which mainly produces billets and is equipped with a 500,000-ton/year blast furnace, went into operation.

In October 2015, Cao Bang Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. put into operation a 220,000 mt/year billet plant in Cao Bang Province, Vietnam, with related equipment including a sintering plant, a blast furnace (approximately 220,000 mt/year) and a converter smelting plant.

In January 2016, as part of the third phase of the Hefa Group Combined Steel Works, the 750,000 tons/year No. 3 blast furnace was put into operation, and the supporting 750,000 tons/year converter smelting plant was put into operation as early as September 2015.

In May 2017 and May 2018, China's Taiwan Formosa Plastics Group Vietnam Ha Tinh Steel (FHS) started smelting iron at blast furnace No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. In the first phase of the project, the company will have a pig iron capacity of 3.5 million tonnes/year, which will later be doubled to 7 million tonnes/year.

In 2019, the company opened its Pha Rong Orange plant in Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. The company's No. 1 and No. 2 blast furnaces with a combined capacity of 2 million tons/year came on line in July and November 2019, followed by No. 3 blast furnaces in August 2020 and No. 4 blast furnaces in January 2021. Overall, the Hefa Rongju plant has a total annual blast furnace capacity of 4 million tons/year and a billet capacity of 4.5 million tons/year.

In November 2020, a blast furnace with a capacity of 1 million tons/year was put into operation at Pomina Steel's No. 3 Pomina billet refinery in Battiotun Province. Since then, the company has operated a blast furnace and an electric arc furnace equipped with Consteel technology to produce higher quality steel products by preempting impurities and slag from molten iron and then charging the furnace.

Vietnam's iron-making capacity is expected to grow further as several new projects come on stream. Among them, Hecfa ordered two blast furnaces from Danieli Group to be installed at Hecfa Rongju No. 2 Plant. Each blast furnace has a volume of 2,500 cubic meters and a capacity of about 2.5 million to 2.8 million tons/year. In addition, two slab continuous casters (with a total capacity of 6 million tons/year) and a 5.5 million tons/year hot strip rolling unit will be provided by Pratt Metallurgical Technologies, which is scheduled to be operational in early 2025. Earlier, Formosa Group Vietnam Ha Tinh Steel also announced the construction of a third blast furnace (3.5 million tons/year), while Vietnam-China Minerals & Metallurgy announced the construction of 500,000 tons/year blast furnace No. 2.