Capacity Expansion & EV Transition: High-Strength Steel Tubes Demand Booms in Vietnam Auto Market

In 2025, Vietnam's automotive manufacturing industry will be accelerating at full throttle. The combined momentum of foreign automakers ramping up investments and local manufacturers expanding production, coupled with the accelerated transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs), has driven explosive growth in demand for lightweight, high-strength steel tubes. As a leading Chinese enterprise with over 20 years of experience in automotive tube and components manufacturing, CBIES is emerging as the preferred partner for senior management and core decision-makers at Vietnamese automakers, leveraging its profound technical expertise, global service experience, and professional supply chain insights to support the high-quality development of the local automotive industry.

 

 

 

In recent years, Vietnam has become a top destination for the global automotive industry, thanks to its strategic location, preferential investment policies, and a promising consumer market. Among foreign automakers, international giants such as Toyota, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi have significantly increased their investments in Vietnam, announcing new production lines focused on compact EVs and hybrid models. It is estimated that the cumulative new capacity will exceed 500,000 units annually between 2025 and 2027. These foreign-funded projects impose strict requirements on supply chain stability, compliance, and technical standards, creating an urgent need for core component suppliers with international certification and global delivery capabilities.

Meanwhile, Vietnam's local automakers are experiencing a period of rapid growth. Leading enterprises like VinFast have successfully transitioned from internal combustion engine vehicles to EVs through technical cooperation and independent R&D. In 2024, sales of EVs from local brands soared by 180% year-on-year, with plans to boost capacity to 300,000 units annually by 2026. While focusing on the mid-to-low-end market, local manufacturers have particularly urgent needs for cost control, rapid response, and customized services in their supply chains, opening up broad opportunities for tube enterprises with flexible adaptation capabilities.

Capacity expansion directly drives demand for upstream core components. As a key material for automotive safety structures (such as side impact door beams and chassis supports), steel tubes have become an indispensable part of Vietnamese automakers' capacity ramp-up. Industry estimates show that every 10,000 vehicles produced requires approximately 80-100 tons of high-strength steel tubes. Based on Vietnam's projected 1 million new vehicles in additional capacity over the next three years, the gap in steel tube demand alone will exceed 80,000 tons, indicating substantial market growth potential.

 

 

Amid the global "carbon neutrality" trend and Vietnam's government support policies for EVs, the transition to new energy vehicles has become an inevitable trend in the local automotive industry. To address range anxiety caused by relatively underdeveloped battery technology, lightweight design has become a core R&D focus for Vietnamese automakers (both foreign and local). High-strength steel tubes, with their key advantage of "reducing weight while enhancing efficiency," have emerged as the critical path to achieving this goal.

 

Compared to ordinary low-carbon steel tubes commonly used in traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, EVs require higher performance from steel tubes to balance battery weight and body strength. High-strength steel tubes with a yield strength of ≥600MPa (such as cold-drawn precision steel tubes) have become the mainstream choice, while some high-end models even demand hot-formed steel tubes with a yield strength of ≥1500MPa. Data shows that the use of high-strength steel tubes can reduce body weight by 15%-20%, directly increasing EV range by 8%-12%, making it the most cost-effective lightweight solution currently available.

 

Furthermore, the Vietnamese government has introduced a policy offering tax incentives for EVs with a local component rate of over 50%, further accelerating the localization of the supply chain. However, local Vietnamese tube enterprises generally face challenges such as low technical barriers and limited production capacity, making it difficult for them to meet the precision (e.g., wall thickness tolerance of ±0.1mm) and consistency requirements of EVs for high-strength steel tubes. This supply-demand mismatch has created opportunities for international suppliers with core technical advantages.

 

 

Faced with the trend-driven opportunities in Vietnam's auto market, CBIES, with over 20 years of R&D and production experience in automotive tubes, is deeply connecting with senior management and core decision-makers at Vietnamese automakers through technical strength, global service capabilities, and professional content output, building long-term trusted partnerships.

 

In terms of products and technology, CBIES, drawing on its experience serving automakers in more than 50 countries worldwide and delivering over 3,000 projects, offers end-to-end solutions from material selection (e.g., CRMO steel, high-strength aluminum alloy composite tubes) to customized processing (integrated cold drawing and heat treatment). Its products fully comply with the IATF16949 international certification standard, meeting both the stringent technical requirements of foreign automakers and providing cost-effective customized solutions for local manufacturers, helping them achieve the dual goals of "localized procurement + cost optimization."

 

In supply chain support, CBIES relies on its "5C Excellence Engine" lean operation system, centered on customers and driven by efficient communication, full-process quality control, continuous improvement, and cost efficiency. It has established a 24/7 rapid response mechanism and a full-link quality traceability system, which fully meets the supply chain stability needs of Vietnamese automakers during capacity expansion.

To further deepen cooperation value, CBIES will continue to deliver professional insights to the Vietnamese market: capacity layout and cost control that concern automaker executives, steel tube selection strategies and cost fluctuation forecasts for different vehicle models, and practical case studies that focus on supply chain compliance and stability.

 

The EV transition and capacity expansion of Vietnam's automotive manufacturing industry mark the long-term trend of Southeast Asia's automotive industry upgrading. Taking this market opportunity, CBIES will continue to leverage its technological, experiential, and supply chain advantages, empowering Vietnamese automakers with professional products and services. Meanwhile, through value output such as industry interpretations and supply chain insights, CBIES will grow alongside Vietnam's automotive industry, becoming a core partner in the high-quality development of the local automotive manufacturing sector.

 

For more information on CBIES' customized solutions and industry insights for the Vietnamese market, please visit the official website or contact us via email.