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Deputy Director of PV Power Nguyen Thi Ngoc Bich attributed the firm’s strong growth profit to its finance investment activities in the period, including the successful divestment of over 19.93 million shares at Petro Vietnam machinery-technology JSC (PV MACHINO), which generated a pre-tax profit of 350 billion VND.

Dividends worth about 170 billion VND that PV Power received from Nhon Trach 2 thermal power JSC also contributed significantly to its profit in the last three months.

However, PV Power’s electricity output reached 4.64 billion kWh in the reviewed period, equal to only 90 percent of the set plan for the first quarter, and 88 percent of the same period last year.

PV Power will closely work with the Electricity of Vietnam, the National Load Dispatch Centre (A0), the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin), and the PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (PV GAS) in operating its power plants, towards producing 5.923 billion kWh in the second quarter.

It also plans to pour investment into Nhon Trach 3 and 4 power plants in the coming time.

Source: VNA

Masan High-Tech Materials’ management board answer questions from shareholders and investors at the company’s annual general meeting held in Ha Noi on April 12. — Photo courtesy of the company

Masan High-Tech Materials (HNX-UpCOM: MSR, MHT) has set a target of net revenue growth of over 50 per cent in 2021, attributing to the H.C. Starck Tungsten Powders integration for the whole year, higher sales revenue and selling prices on the market.

The better price and bigger revenue will enable Masan High-Tech Materials to achieve earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) growth more than 100 per cent over last year, and strongly backed by the strict cost control in lean production activities.

Attributable net profit after tax is expected to be at appropriately VND200 – 400 billion (US$8.66 -17.3 million).

Speaking at its annual general meeting with the theme of “Go Global” held in Ha Noi on April 12, Craig Richard Bradshaw, general director of Masan High-Tech Materials, shared: “In 2020, Masan High-Tech Materials completed the acquisition of H.C. Starck Tungsten Powders and forged a strategic alliance with Mitsubishi Materials Corporation through an investment of $90 million from a Japanese Group, equivalent to a 10 per cent stake in MHT.

“The transactions have validated the transformation of Masan High-Tech Materials into a vertically integrated high-tech tungsten platform and asserted its position as global scale high-tech materials producer. Having overcome all the challenges and fluctuations impacted by COVID-19, Masan High-Tech Materials has promptly responded, tirelessly expanded its portfolios, flexibly meet customer needs and particularly manage cash flow efficiently.”

Its net revenues in 2020 were up 55 per cent year on year at VND7.291 trillion, mainly attributed to the consolidation of H.C. Starck Tungsten Powders. Thanks to the copper concentrate export permit, copper product revenue in 2020 increased against 2019, with a total 82,000 tonnes of copper concentrate exported under the export permit granted to the company.

Masan High-Tech Materials sustained its throughput in the Nui Phao Processing plant at 3.87 million tonnes, up by 2.3 per cent against 2019.

The processing plant had an overall availability of 95.4 per cent, up 1.3 per cent over 2019. In a production sense, contained copper production was up 13 per cent on prior years while tungsten equivalent production was up 68 per cent, thanks to the integration of the H.C. Starck Tungsten Powders.

From a cost perspective, the focus and drive on lowest cost production continued in 2020 with the team delivering an overall cash cost reduction in operating costs of $16.5 million compared with 2019. Of particular note was a 14.7 per cent improvement year on year in the unit cost per tonne milled in the Nui Phao Mining operation.

Speaking about its strategic vision for the 2021-25 , Danny Le, chairman of the board of directors of Masan High-Tech Materials, said “In 2021, we shall continue to work with customers to relentlessly develop the platform for tungsten high-tech materials.

“In parallel to seeking the opportunities to further develop tungsten recycling platform, Masan High-Tech Materials shall focus on expanding the recycling of other materials such as Cobalt, Tantalum and Molybdenum.

“Recently, H.C. Starck Tungsten Powders (a subsidiary of Masan High-Tech Materials) has received a funding of 800,000 Euro ($952,879) from German government to develop a new Cobalt recycling technology.”

The company aims to become a partner of choice to high-tech industries, where its products are a key component in evolving and shaping the future of the world, he said.

In early 2021, it has seen positive signs from customers with steadily increasing volumes and certainly higher metal prices. With ongoing investment in infrastructure projects and renewal projects by respective world governments, increasing spend on renewables, electric vehicles, fuel cell technologies, return of automotive manufacturing demand and general engineering, the demand outlook for its suite of products looks strong, the company said. — VNS

LG Electronics is looking to sell its smartphone plants. Source: Glassdoor

After announcing to withdraw from the smartphone business, LG Electronics is closing down production plants in Haiphong (Vietnam), Taubate (Brazil), and Qingdao (China) after failing to effect a breakthrough, according to Business Korea .

Of these, the Haiphong plant, which is the largest among LG Electronics’ smartphone plants with an annual capacity of about 10 million smartphones, equaling about half of LG’s total smartphone output, has been announced to find a buyer at the selling price of KRW100 billion ($90 million). Realising the difficulties of finding a local buyer, which is going to manufacture almost 10 million smartphones per year, LG Electronics is considering selling the plant site only, without the production lines.

The Taubate and Qingdao plants are facing the same difficulties. They have a total capacity of about 8-9 million smartphones a year. After a rumour about the sale of the Taubate plant caught wind at the end of February, executives and employees at the plant have been staging a strike since March 26 due to concerns over their job security.

Last month, LG Electronics attempted to sell its smartphone factories to local conglomerate Vingroup, without success.

“LG negotiated with Vingroup to sell its smartphone factories in Vietnam and Brazil. However, the recent negotiations failed mainly due to price disagreements,” the Korea Times today quoted a senior industry official who understood the deal.

Tran Phuong Hong, IT Advisory director, KPMG Tax and Advisory Vietnam and Do Kim Hien, senior solution consultant, KPMG Tax and Advisory Vietnam

In Vietnam, we have had vast opportunities in conducting SWIFT system security gap assessment projects for Vietnamese banks, and there are best practices that clients should consider while implementing and securing the system according to a SWIFT Customer Security Control Framework (SWIFT CSCF).

The SWIFT CSCF describes a set of mandatory and advisory security controls for users. Mandatory security controls establish a security baseline for the entire community and must be implemented by all users on their local SWIFT infrastructure. The SWIFT has chosen to prioritise these mandatory controls to set a realistic goal for near-term, tangible security gain, and risk reduction.

Advisory controls are based on good practice that SWIFT recommends. Over time, mandatory controls may change due to the evolving threat landscape, and some advisory controls may become mandatory.

All controls are articulated around three objectives: ‘Secure your Environment’, ‘Know and Limit Access’, and ‘Detect and Respond’. Controls have been developed based on SWIFT analysis of cyber threat intelligence and in conjunction with industry experts and user feedback. Control definitions are also intended to be in line with existing information security industry standards.

SWIFT CSCF version 2021 has defined 31 security controls (22 mandatory and nine advisory controls) that underpin these objectives and principles. The controls are intended to help mitigate specific cybersecurity risks that users face due to the cyber threat landscape. Within each security control, SWIFT has documented the most common risk drivers that the control is designed to help mitigate.

Addressing these risks aims to prevent or minimise undesirable and potentially fraudulent business consequences, such as unauthorised sending or modification of financial transactions; processing of altered or unauthorised SWIFT inbound transactions; business conducted with an unauthorised counterparty; and confidentiality or integrity breach of business data, computer systems, or operator details.

Ultimately, these consequences represent enterprise-level financial, legal, regulatory, and reputational risks.

Common violations

During the gap assessment for the SWIFT system, we have noticed a number of common issues that financial institutions often violate compared to SWIFT CSCF requirements.

Firstly, the network micro-segmentation for applications and SWIFT systems is not carried out clearly and completely. For example, email or active directory applications still have common connections to the SWIFT system.

Secondly, security policies and procedures (for example security vulnerability management procedure, and malware prevention procedure) are not detailed, accurate, or aligned to the current situation of the system.

Next, system hardening guidelines/standards are not fully and completely developed, and they are not periodically reviewed and updated. Additionally, the security vulnerability scanning is only conducted on important applications and servers. For network devices, virtualisation platforms, or databases, the scanning is almost ignored.

Finally, the password policy is only applied to Windows servers and not applied on network devices, security devices, or Unix/Linux platforms.

In order to fully assess the security controls of the SWIFT environment, the following important points should be noted.

Understanding client’s SWIFT architecture: The current architecture of SWIFT is divided into four types – A1, A2, A3, and B. Each architecture has a difference in components and the connection from the client to SWIFT. So, understanding each type of architecture will help you identify the scope and assess the relevant systems involved that may affect the security of the SWIFT environment.

Understanding security controls: SWIFT’s security controls are only applied to a certain scope – SWIFT systems and indirect infrastructure related to it. You need to be aware of connections and determine which scope would apply security controls to avoid assessing unnecessary components that are outside the scope.

Understanding mandatory and advisory controls: SWIFT’s security controls are divided into mandatory and advisory controls. Depending on the requirements of the customer and the scope of the assessment, you should decide which controls should be reviewed and evaluated in the most appropriate way.

Understanding the objective of each control: SWIFT CSCF 2021’s security controls are divided into eight groups. Understanding the objective of each control makes it easier to identify alternative controls if they exist and avoid misjudging the customer’s current security level because during the assessment, it is realised that customers could use different security controls than required by SWIFT and still meet the final objective and ensure the safety of the system.

Understanding purpose and role of SWIFT components: SWIFT includes many components with different roles such as messaging interface, communication interface, SWIFTNet Link, connector, and more. These components connect, interact, and have mutual security relationships. Therefore, understanding the roles and functions of each component helps you determine which security controls are appropriate for which component, thereby assessing most accurately and effectively for potential risks.

As international transactions and commerce become more popular, SWIFT becomes one of the important components of financial institutions, especially banks. Therefore, its security needs to be paid close attention to properly minimise fraud in international transactions, protect user data, and safeguard the reputation of the organisation.

Travel agencies in the Central region are creating new tourism products in preparation for the upcoming holidays on April 30 and May 1.