Vietnam Revises its Anti-Dumping Duties on Cold-Rolled Stainless Steel Imports

Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIIT) has recently released the revised rates of anti-dumping duty (ADD) on its cold-rolled stainless steel imports coming from China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan in its second review. The first review of duties took place in April 2016.

According to the reports, while the majority of anti-dumping duties have been kept unchanged against the rates in the first review, the only change has been made in the anti-dumping duty rates of PT Jindal Stainless Indonesia.

The ADD rate for manufacturers from mainland China is still 25.35% while the Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel Co, Ltd (STSS) enjoys a rate of 17.47%.

The ADD rate for manufacturers from Indonesia remains unchanged at 13.03% but is reduced to 6.64% for PT Jindal Stainless Indonesia. Manufacturers from Malaysia will continue to face ADD rate of 9.31%.

Meanwhile, manufacturers from Taiwan continue to bear the same duty of 13.79% and Own Yuan Long Stainless Steel Corp is subjected to AD of 37.29%.

The ministry has also said that it will exclude the application of anti-dumping measures for some stainless steel products that are not yet produced domestically or not reach technical standards.

The items covered under this review includes cold-rolled stainless steel products classified under HS codes 7219.32.00; 7219.33.00; 7219.34.00; 7219.35.00; 7219.90.00; 7220.20.10; 7220.20.90; 7220.90.10; and 7220.90.90.

The new tariffs will be applicable from 20 Jul’18 to 10 Oct’19.

What happened in the past?

In June 2013 two Vietnamese steelmakers, Posco VST Co Ltd and Inox Hoa Binh JSC, lodged a lawsuit accusing steel exporters from the four countries including Malaysia, China, Taiwan, and Indonesia of dumping inferior quality products in Vietnam, causing serious damage to the production and consumption of domestic steelmakers.

The invasion of imported stainless steel caused a 132% increase in the unsold inventory of local steelmakers as of the end of 2012, the plaintiffs alleged.

The complainants also added that domestic steelmakers only accounted for 35% of the market in 2011, while the market share a year earlier was 41%. In the same period, the market share of imported products jumped from 59% to 65%.

Subsequently, in Sep’14, Vietnam’s MIIT concluded its investigation and announced anti-dumping duty on imports of stainless steel shipments from above four territories for materially hurting the domestic steel industry. This was the first time Vietnam imposed anti-dumping duty on imported steel.

Two years after the imposition of anti-dumping duties i.e. in 2016, the MIIT announced the first review of the ADD rates on imported stainless steel imports and raised the anti-dumping tax rates on steel imports from China and Indonesia and reduced the rate on Malaysian products while keeping it the same for Taiwanese steel.

However, one year after this first review i.e. in 2017, the relevant parties, in line with Vietnam’s prevailing anti-dumping law asked for the second review.

The Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) received documents asking for another review from some steel importers, and foreign companies shipping their products to Vietnam.

Having taken their documents into account, the ministry decided to carry out the second review and subsequently announced its decision one year later in July 2018.

Changes in Vietnam’s ADD structure on cold-rolled stainless steel imports

Source: MIIT