Cheap imported steel continuously floods the Vietnamese market
According to the General Department of Customs, in the first 10 months of 2024, imports of iron and steel of all kinds increased sharply, being one of the 7 groups of imported goods exceeding 10 billion USD.
October also marked a month with record import volume, with 2.41 million tons, worth 1.51 billion USD, up 55.9% in volume and 41.7% in value compared to the previous month.
Notably, the amount of iron and steel imported from China has increased dramatically. In the past 10 months, imports of all kinds of iron and steel from China reached 10.16 million tons, an increase of 58.9% (equivalent to an increase of 3.77 million tons) with a value of 6.37 billion USD, an increase of 43.2%.
Hot-rolled HRC steel, galvanized steel, steel bars and steel wire… are the most imported items. The flood of cheap steel from China has made it difficult for Vietnamese steel enterprises to compete, pushing them into a situation where they are at risk of shrinking production.
Faced with the huge influx of imported steel, especially the sudden increase from some markets, in an effort to protect the domestic manufacturing industry, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has used trade defense tools.
In particular, on July 26, 2024, the Ministry issued Decision No. 1985 on investigating and applying anti-dumping measures on some hot-rolled steel products originating from India and China.
The decision to investigate was based on a request filed by domestic manufacturers under the provisions of the Foreign Trade Management Law, alleging that hot-rolled steel manufacturers from India and China were dumping the product into Vietnam, causing damage to the domestic manufacturing industry.
Verification results should be announced promptly.
Speaking with Lao Dong, Mr. Chu Thang Trung - Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Defense (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that Vietnam currently has 2 enterprises producing hot-rolled steel with a total capacity of about 8.6 million tons/year.
Hot-rolled steel products produced domestically, in addition to serving domestic consumption needs, are also exported to other markets.
The demand for hot-rolled steel in the Vietnamese domestic market is about 13 million tons/year. Thus, it can be said that imports are still a supplementary source to serve the needs of the domestic market at the present time.
However, recently, based on the request documents of the domestic manufacturing industry, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Decision No. 1985 on conducting an investigation to apply anti-dumping measures on hot-rolled steel products (HRC) originating from India and China to ensure a fair competitive environment between imported goods and domestically produced goods.
According to the investigation process, based on information and data provided by relevant parties, the Trade Defense Department is assessing and determining the dumping behavior of manufacturing and exporting enterprises of India and China and the impact of imports on the domestic manufacturing industry, including recent developments in increased imports.
These will be important bases for the trade defense investigation agency to determine whether the domestic production industry is damaged or not and the cause of this damage, if any, comes from where.
In case there is sufficient evidence to preliminarily determine that the domestic industry suffers significant damage from dumped imported goods, the trade defense investigation agency may recommend that the Ministry of Industry and Trade apply temporary anti-dumping measures to limit negative impacts on the domestic industry.
Economist Vu Vinh Phu said that in order to protect Vietnamese goods as well as domestic production, in addition to the efforts of enterprises themselves, the authorities need to soon have solutions such as building anti-dumping measures and temporary import tax policies. Otherwise, Vietnamese goods will lose at home, and domestic production will increasingly shrink.
"The Ministry of Industry and Trade's leaders said that by November at the latest, there will be preliminary results of the investigation into the application of anti-dumping measures on hot-rolled steel products (HRC). By this time, it is almost the end of November, the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to quickly announce the verification results," said Mr. Phu.
