Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) last week announced a decision initiating an anti-dumping probe against Chinese cold rolled carbon steels. 

The investigation was based on complaints from three Vietnamese cold rolled steel producers, including Phu My – VNSTEEL, Posco – Vietnam and China Steel Sumikin Vietnam.

These companies accused such Chinese steel products are being sold at prices lower than the normal ones in the Vietnamese market, of which the dumping margin was estimated at 21.3%.
This is one of the main reasons causing considerable damage for the Vietnamese steel sector, stated Vietnamese companies.

Following the regulation, the MoIT would send questionnaires to concerned parties for collecting information, including the dumping activities of Chinese businesses and the damage of Vietnamese companies.

In case of necessity and based on preliminary result, the MoIT could apply temporary anti-dumping duty on Chinese products to minimize the damage from such actions to the domestic steel sector.

As of present, a number of Chinese imports have been subject to anti-dumping measures from Vietnamese authority, including shaped aluminum, pre-painted galvanized steel sheet, biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films, among others.

Le Trieu Dung, director general of the Trade Remedies Authority under the MoIT, previously said as goods imported to Vietnam have increased both in terms of quantity and value, the authority is cooperating with other government agencies in supporting enterprises and putting trade safeguard measures in place, if needed, in compliance with the law.

Meanwhile, goods and products that domestic companies have not been able to produce could be subject to exemption from anti-dumping duty.

On the contrary, there have been a growing number of Vietnamese goods targeted by trade protection measures from other countries, with an average of one case per month, including five anti-dumping and two anti-subsidy probes. Hanoitimes

Ngoc Mai