HCMC - Steel ingots and long steels imported into Vietnam from many countries and territories will be subject to temporary safeguard duties of 23.3% and 14.2% respectively from March 22 to October 7 this year, according to a decision issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Monday.

The ministry started to probe the imported products on December 25 last year and decided to impose the safeguard duties based on preliminary investigation results. The decision will take effect 15 days after it was signed and apply for a maximum of 200 days.

Products imposed temporary safeguard duties include alloy and non-alloy steel ingots and long steels including rolled steel and steel bars made from imported steel ingots.

The decision comes several months after Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company (JSC), Southern Steel Co Ltd, Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel JSC and Vietnam-Italy Steel JSC called for safeguard measures against the imported products.

In the petition, the local firms asked the ministry to impose temporary safeguard duties of 45% on steel ingot imports and 33% on long steel products made from imported steel ingots regardless of exporting countries for 200 days to protect and ensure the competitiveness of domestic producers.

The temporary safeguard tariffs do not apply to steel ingots and long steels imported from lesser-developed countries if the import volumes do not exceed 3% of the total volume of imports under investigation to apply safeguard measures, and the total amount imported into Vietnam is under 9% of the total volume under investigation. The decision also includes a list of markets free from the duties.

Earlier, in end-December last year, the local investigation agency sent questionnaires to the parties concerned, and from January 29 to February 23 conducted on-site examinations into enterprises producing similar goods and goods with direct competition.

A preliminary conclusion of local investigation agencies showed that prices of imported goods have piled price pressure on domestically-made products. The market share of the domestic manufacturing industry for both steel ingots and long steel products declined correspondingly to the strong increase in imports. Therefore, the agency said the domestic steel ingots and long steel production will continue to lose market share and suffer from revenue and profit contraction and stagnant operation.

The conclusion also showed that for long steel products, the import volume into Vietnam soared from 387,448 tons in 2012 to 665,679 tons in 2013 and 1,282,090 tons in 2015.

Source: The Saigon Times