Vietnam Faces Increase in Anti-Dumping Lawsuits amid its Rising Steel Exports

Vietnam has become ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) region's top steel exporting country with its steel exports recording a rise of 41% at 4.5 MnT in first eight months (Jan-Aug) of 2018 against the corresponding period of previous year. Cambodia accounted for the largest portion of Vietnam's total steel exports at 34.9%, followed by Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

Subsequently, amid this increased steel exports, the number of anti-dumping lawsuits against Vietnamese steel has also risen which has worried the country's domestic steelmakers. According to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the sector faced 10 such lawsuits in Aug'18. Steel has always been the most prosecuted industry with eight lawsuits per month.

The Thai Ministry of Commerce extended a safeguard measure for non-alloy and non-coil coated steel sheets for the second time.

The EU has applied provisional safeguards in its investigation of three Vietnamese steel products. The Malaysian Ministry of Industry and Trade has initiated anti-dumping investigations for certain iron and steel products made of ore imported from China and Viet Nam.

In addition, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) is investigating unsubsidized steel products imported from Viet Nam due to suspected tax evasion.

While industry experts believe that Vietnam's economy had integrated into the regional and world economies resulting which the rise in the number of lawsuits was unavoidable, the initiation of anti-dumping measures by ASEAN's Thailand and Malaysia has worried the country's local steel sector.

For this Vietnam's MoIT (Ministry of Industry and Trade) is supporting local steelmakers in investigations while helping them improve competitiveness and stop relying on imported materials as the rerouting of imported steel from Vietnam to various other countries has become a common practice. In addition, steel producers are being urged to keep close tabs on the whole production process to be able to disprove accusations of evading taxes.
Last week, MoIT announced anti-dumping duties on imported cold-rolled stainless steel coming from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan for the period of five years.