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Illegal import of Chinese boron steel under control
The illegal import of Chinese construction steel that contains boron has been put under control, said Nguyen Tien Nghi, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
He said the import volume of boron steel coils was on the decline and this was in stark contrast with the time when such steel in bulk flowed into the country.
In 2008 and early this year, some domestic steel firms imported huge amounts of steel coils coated with boron to enjoy a 0% import tax, instead of 12% for other types of construction steel coils, Nghi told the Daily on Monday.
“To date, some 30,000 tons of boron steel coils has been imported from China. The quality of boron steel coils is the same as that of construction type, so this is an act of trade fraud,” he said.
The association proposed in early March that the Government and relevant ministries take measures such as tax to cope with such fraud and thus protect the interests of domestic steel producers.
The Ministry of Finance then issued a circular increasing import tax on steel ingots from 5 to 8%, finished steel products from 12 to 15% and alloy steel coils, which include the boron type, from 0 to 10%. The new tax rates took effect on April 20.
According to the vice chairman of VSA, the domestic steel consumption over the past two months has picked up compared to early this year. In the first four months of the year, the country consumed some 1.2 million tons of steel.
Local steel producers are still facing huge stockpiles, with 130,000 tons of finished steel products and about 450,000 tons of steel ingots.
Steel prices have leapt to some VND10.7 million a ton, exclusive of value added tax, up by around VND150,000 from last week.
The higher steel price resulted mostly from the rise in world prices of steel ingots, which are quoted at around US$420 a ton, US$5 higher than two weeks ago.
vietnamnet, sgt
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