Despite the ongoing trade war between two major economies, U.S. and China, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has forecasted that the country’s steel sector will maintain the annual growth of nearly 20% this year similar to last year, which will include growth in construction steel by 10%, cold rolled coil by 5%, straight welded steel pipes by 15%, galvanised iron sheet and colour coated paint by 12% and hot rolled coil is expected to see the strongest growth of up to 154%.
A line of projects are being put into operation with Hoa Sen Corporation to put into operation a line to manufacture cold rolled coils, galvanised and coloured coat steel with a capacity of 350,000 tonnes this year while Tung Ho Steel Enterprise will launch a line that will be able to produce 600,000 tonnes of construction steel.
Hoa Phat Corporation will start its rolled steel project with a capacity of roughly 600,000 tonnes in August and build a furnace in the central province of Quang Ngai, which is expected to be inaugurated in 2019 and eventually yields 3 MnT of steel sheets and cords each year. It will be the first time that a Vietnamese firm will be able to manufacture hot rolled coils.
The industry experts believe that with the launch of various manufacturing facilities, domestic steel firms could prove the origin of products in order to avoid anti-dumping taxes as Vietnam is suspected of being a centre for circumvention of duties in case of Chinese steel that moves abroad.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed a 199.76% anti-dumping tax and a 256.44% special consumption tax on Vietnamese CRC of Chinese origin, after concluding that such products avoided the US’s anti-dumping tax on the Chinese products.
In order to further avoid imposition of such trade defence lawsuits from U.S., Vietnam has imposed the anti-dumping duty of 10-30% on Chinese steel imports.
Nguyen Van Sua, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) has suggested the domestic steel companies in Vietnam to invest in technological advances, improve governance capacity to increase competitiveness and keep a watch on international practices. He has also emphasised that Vietnam should continue with trade defence measures and ensure rolled coils used in construction under the name of other kinds of steel are taxed correctly.
According to Vietnam’s customs data, China’s percentage in Vietnam’s total steel imports decreased from 60% in 2016 to 40% in 2017 and is forecasted to fall 38% in the current year of 2018.
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