Life hard for local steelmakers: VSA
Life hard for local steelmakers: VSA
Besides price declines and low demand in the local market, the fierce competition from imported products is raising concerns among domestic steel producers, Thanh Nien Online newspaper reported, citing the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
According to VSA, the volume of imported steel into the country is on the rise despite trade remedies for steel imports from China, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The General Department of Vietnam Customs’ statistics showed that Vietnam imported more than US$12.4 billion worth of iron and steel products from January to November last year, up 16.4% over the same period last year. Of which, steel imported from China in the period was valued at over US$5.57 billion, making up 45% of the country's total steel imports.
Ngo Tri Long, former director of the Price Market Research Institute under the Ministry of Finance, said that steel producers in countries subject to Vietnam’s antidumping tax have changed the origins of their products before shipping them to Vietnam to avoid the tax.
He proposed the Ministry of Industry and Trade keep a close watch on the import of steel products and adopt trade remedies if needed.
In addition, local manufacturers can produce some 30 million tons of steel products per year, ranking first in the Southeast Asian region. However, local firms have reached 63% of their capacity, lower than the world average of 76.9%.
The country can produce most steel products, except for hot-rolled coil steel. These products are typically exported, but barriers in import markets are increasing, causing difficulties for local steel firms.
