HCMC – After welded carbon-quality steel pipe and steel hanger, now stainless steel pipe from Vietnam faces an anti-dumping case petitioned by U.S. steelmakers, said the Vietnam Competition Authority under Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Three U.S. steel producers last Thursday sent to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) an anti-dumping petition against stainless steel pressure pipe imported from Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia.

According to the data provided in the petition, Vietnam in 2012 exported over 4,600 tons of stainless steel pipes worth US$16.3 million to the U.S. market, accounting for 6.61% of the U.S. imports of this product.

This has been the third lawsuit against steel products imported from Vietnam filed by the U.S. since 2011. In 2011 and 2012, the local steel industry struggled with five anti-dumping proceedings and two anti-subsidy cases initiated by the U.S., Brazil, Thailand and Indonesia, making up almost half of the total cases in the past few years.

Welded carbon-quality steel pipe and steel hanger faced dual lawsuits (both anti-dumping and anti-subsidy) brought by the U.S.

It requires double time, effort and money to deal with such cases, according to the Trade Remedies Council (TRC). For an industry inexperienced in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases like the steel industry, it is extremely difficult to cope with consecutive lawsuits in a short time.

Early this year, Tran Tuan Nghiep, general director of Huu Lien Asia (HLAC), a voluntary respondent in the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into carbon-quality steel pipes, said the U.S. was the main market of the company in its long-term strategy. HLAC’s new products are aimed for this market, he said.

The price competition in the steel market is quite fierce, so an extra duty deals a really hard blow to steelmakers. If imposed high tariffs, local steel firms could no longer export their products to the U.S. market, said Nghiep.

As per the U.S. investigation results published in late 2012, Vietnam’s welded carbon-quality steel pipe is not subject to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties stateside.