Four U.S. steel makers have filed a case against Vietnamese exporters, claiming they have sold cheap steel imported from China to avoid anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties slapped on Chinese products, the Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) said.

According to the authority under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has handled the case filed by ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor Corporation, United States Steel Corporation, and AK Steel Corporation. They asked the DOC to launch anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into cold rolled steel (CRS) imports from Vietnam.

The four firms said they had sufficient evidence that Chinese CRS products had been exported to Vietnam before being shipped on to the U.S.

The U.S. probed CRS imports from China, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Russia and the UK in August last year before an anti-dumping tax of 199.76% and an anti-subsidy duty of 256.44% were levied on them in May this year.

As claimed by the four U.S. steel firms, since the high tariffs were applied, the volume of Chinese CRS products to the U.S. has dipped sharply, but imports of the product from Vietnam into the U.S. have surged. They wanted the DOC to request Vietnamese steel exporters place deposits equivalent to the tariffs on Chinese steel products when shipping CRS products stateside.

U.S. steel companies California Steel Industries and Steel Dynamics have asked the DOC to look into corrosion-resistant carbon steel products imported from Vietnam. They claimed Vietnam had imported the Chinese corrosion-resistant carbon steel subject to the respective anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties of 199.43% and 241.43% for export to the U.S.

Over the past years, many steel products of Vietnam have been sued for being dumped on the U.S. market, including welded carbon-quality steel, oil steel pipe and stainless steel pipes; steel nails; and steel hangers.