Vietnam slaps antidumping duties on steel imports for 1st time
Vietnam slaps antidumping duties on steel imports for 1st time
While Vietnamese exports are facing, or have been subject to, antidumping tariffs in many nations, the Southeast Asian country has, for the first time ever, decided to levy duties on steel imports from four markets to protect domestic steelmakers.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said in a decision on Friday that import duties of up to 37.29 percent will be imposed on cold-rolled stainless steel shipments from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan for materially hurting the domestic steelmaking industry.
The decision, which came after more than a year of antidumping investigation, will take effect on October 5.
Chinese-made cold-rolled stainless steel is subject to duties ranging from 4.64 percent to 6.87 percent, while the respective tariffs for Malaysian and Indonesian products are 10.71 percent and 3.07 percent, according to the ministry.
Taiwanese steelmakers will receive the highest duties. A 37.29 percent tariff is imposed on products of the Yuan Long Stainless Corp, while other Taiwanese companies are subject to a 13.79 percent duty.
Cold-rolled stainless steel products imported from these markets “have been sold below fair market value,” which “caused significant damage to the domestic steelmaking sector,” the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said in its decision.
Cold-rolled stainless steel products are used to make consumer products, car parts, cooking and dining utensils, and construction materials.
In June 2013 two Vietnamese steelmakers, Posco VST Co Ltd and Inox Hoa Binh JSC, lodged a lawsuit accusing steel exporters from these countries and territories of dumping type-two products in Vietnam, causing “serious damage to the production and consumption of domestic steelmakers.”
The ‘invasion’ of imported stainless steel caused a 132 percent increase in the unsold inventory of local steelmakers as of the end of 2012, the plaintiffs said.
The plaintiffs added that domestic steelmakers only accounted for 35 percent of the market in 2011, while the market share a year earlier was 41 percent. In the same period, the market share of imported products jumped from 59 percent to 65 percent.
Vietnam’s steelmaking sector is capable of meeting domestic demand for stainless steel, as it “has invested dozens of millions of U.S. dollars on modern production lines and manufacturing plants,” the plaintiffs said, adding that these companies, however, “had to operate below full capacity due to the dumping of imported products.”
This is the first time Vietnam has imposed antidumping tariffs on imported steel products.
Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, who specializes in trade remedies at the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the case will be “a precious experience for Vietnamese businesses and associations in integrating into the world market.”
“There are no other tools to protect domestic manufacturing sectors against imported products but antidumping tariffs,” she added.
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