Request for Anti-Dumping Investigation of Hot Rolled Steel Imports from India and China Approved

On March 19, 2024, the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam (TRAV), the Investigation Agency received applications from companies representing the domestic manufacturing industry, the Petitioners, including Hoa Phat Group and Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation, requesting an investigation into the application of anti-dumping measures for HRC products from India and China. The request for anti-dumping investigation of hot rolled steel has been approved.

How anti-dumping investigation of hot rolled steel progressed?

The reasons given by the petitioners are that HRC steel from these two countries has been massively imported into Vietnam in recent times as well as the selling price is lower than the amount of imported goods from other countries, affecting domestic production.

On April 1, 2024, the Investigation Agency issued a notice requesting the requesting Party to supplement the contents of the above-mentioned investigation request dossier.

On April 26, 2024, the Petitioners submits additional information and documents according to the notice of the Investigation Agency.

On May 13, 2024, the Investigation Agency issued a notice requesting the Petitioners to continue supplementing for the second time some contents of the investigation request dossier.

On May 31, 2024, the Petitioners submitted additional and complete information and documents at the request of the Investigation Agency.

On June 14, 2024, the Investigation Agency confirmed that the dossier of request for investigation was complete and valid in accordance with the law on trade remedies.

What anti-dumping investigation of hot rolled steel encompass?

After the Trade Remedies Authority certifies that the dossier is complete and eligible, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will review the dossier to make a decision to investigate or not to investigate the case. The contents of the dossier appraisal will include:

(i) Determine the legal representative status of the domestic manufacturing industry of the organization or individual submitting the dossier in accordance with the Law on Foreign Trade Management;

(ii) Identification of evidence of dumping of imported goods that causes or threatens to cause significant damage to the domestic manufacturing industry or significantly prevent the formation of the domestic manufacturing industry.

Previously, in the process of awaiting for the authorities to appraise the dossier, the amount of HRC steel imported from China has increased massively into Vietnam.

According to data from the General Department of Customs, the total import volume of HRC steel in May 2024 increased by 20% compared to the previous month, equal to 192% of domestic production. In which, imports from China accounted for 75%, Japan accounted for 13%. Statistics show that the price of HRC steel in May from China is lower than other countries from 48-186 USD/ton.

Notably, the amount of HRC products imported into Vietnam in the first 5 months of the year was equal to 176% of domestic production, equivalent to nearly double when the amount of this product produced in the country only reached nearly 2.86 million tons. Particularly, HRC steel from China also exceeded domestic production.

Not only Vietnam is considering investigating, Thailand is also investigating, considering expanding new anti-dumping measures with Chinese HRC steel due to the flood of lower priced imported steel, causing the country’s steel enterprises to only produce 30% of capacity, lower than the average of 58% in Southeast Asia.

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