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India probes steel imports from Vietnam
Steel mills in Vietnam are reeling from a rising influx of cheap Chinese-made steel coils but they are facing an anti-dumping probe by Indian authorities.
The Vietnam Competition Administration Department said on its website on Wednesday that India’s Directorate General of Safeguards had announced to launch an investigation into imports of hot rolled coils, sheets and strips steel from 14 countries including Vietnam.
According to the announcement, should any companies want to be voluntary defendants, they will have to register by April 29 with the Directorate General of Safeguards, which is under the Indian Ministry of Finance’s Department of Revenue.
They are also required to submit all information that can help protect them against the dumping accusations by May 8.
The Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) said it had yet to receive any information about the issue but it would work with member companies concerned over the dumping accusations.
VSA Chairman Pham Chi Cuong, however, said steel mills in Vietnam were not producing sheets and that for steel coils, the local market was still reliant on imports and local producers often made strips out of such coils.
“India is not yet a major market for domestic steel exporters, so VSA will look carefully into this issue,” Cuong told the Daily on Wednesday.
Cuong said his suspicion was that some manufacturers that imported huge volumes of steel but suffered from poor sales last year due to an oversupply might have re-exported the item at low prices to recover capital.
For more information, contact the Directorate General of Safeguards on telefax 011-23741542 / 23741537 or email: dgsafeguards@nic.in
The Indian dumping accusation comes at a time when producers in Vietnam are struggling with rising cheap steel coil imports.
Cuong of VSA was quoted on Wednesday by Tuoi Tre as saying that about 150,000 tons of steel coils had been imported into the country from Southeast Asian nations and China in the year to date.
Chinese alloy steel alone accounted for about 70,000 tons, he said. Vietnam has imposed a 10% import tax on this type of steel.
Prices of imported steel are soaring, at US$520-530 a ton, and thus narrowing the difference between local and import prices to VND500,000-600,000 from the previous VND1 million a ton. Vietnam Steel Corp. on Tuesday quoted the factory price of steel coils at VND9.9 million a ton, Tuoi Tre reports.
In a related development, the U.S authorities have recently warned of an imminent investigation into steel pipe imports from Vietnam, saying there are signs that local producers are dumping this item on the American market.
A notice enclosed with the documents on the dumping suit against PE bag imports from Vietnam says U.S producers of steel pipes had complained with U.S. trade authorities over alleged dumping by six countries including Vietnam.
Cuong of VSA said two producers – Viet Duc of Vietnam and SeAH Vietnam of South Korea – began exporting steel pipes to the U.S late last year, with annual export revenue totaling around several million dollars.
But the U.S trade authorities announced a month ago that steel pipes imports from Vietnam made up 2.55% of the American steel market and if the percentage abruptly climbed to 3%, they would launch an anti-dumping probe.
A source from a steel pipe manufacturer said Vietnam’s steel pipe exports to a huge market like the U.S could not beat the 3% threshold.
vietnamnet, sgt
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