In May’18, the U.S. Commerce Department slapped steep import duties on steel products from Vietnam that originated in China after a final finding that they evaded US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy orders.
The U.S. customs authorities will collect anti-dumping duties of 199.76% and countervailing duties of 256.44% on imports of cold-rolled steel produced in Vietnam using Chinese-origin substrate.
However, after banning China-origin imports via Vietnam, U.S. steelmakers are demanding ban on Korea-origin CRC imports coming from Vietnam. According to industry sources, six major U.S. steelmakers including Nucor Steel Corp and U.S. Steel has filed a complaint with the Commerce Department and ITC (International Trade Commission) requesting the trade restriction on the same.
The steelmakers in U.S. have claimed that over past few months the indirect imports of Korean CRC from Vietnam have increased while the direct imports from South Korea have plummeted significantly due to the existence of anti-dumping and countervailing duty on Korean steel imports. The applicants have blamed the South Korean steel giant POSCO to export hot rolled steel to its Vietnamese arm ‘POSCO Vietnam’, process it and then export the cold rolled steel to U.S.
In response to this, POSCO has submitted a written statement that POSCO Vietnam’s steel products do not use Chinese material and that the company is facing raw material shortage amid its parent company’s (POSCO-South Korea) inability to send the same to POSCO Vietnam due to the presence of anti-dumping and countervailing duty on Korean imports.
The Trump government has become quite aggressive in restricting steel imports into the country amid its ‘Make in America’ programme. In Mar’18, the country has imposed steep tariffs of 25% on steel imports coming from almost all the nations across the globe that has resulted from Section 232 national security investigations into steel and aluminum imports.
The anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed by U.S. on China-origin Vietnamese steel will be in addition to these import tariffs of 25%.
Inputs from SteelDaily
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