The European Commission has notified Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade that it has received an official dumping complaint against some steel products from Vietnam, Tuoi Tre is reporting. Specifically, the review will look at non-alloy or alloy hot-rolled steel coil or HRC.
Of note, Vietnam has launched its own anti-dumping investigation into HRC from China. This is on the back of a flood of cheap steel into the country. As of the end of June, Chinese iron and steel imports into Vietnam totalled US$3.7 billion with a further US$2.1 billion worth of iron and steel products.
That said, Vietnam also exported about US$4.8 billion worth of iron and steel and US$2.1 billion worth of iron and steel products.
Trade remedies against Vietnam’s exports have increased significantly in recent years in large part due to Chinese firms using Vietnam as a thoroughfare to avoid tariffs on Chinese exports in other parts of the world. Electric bikes and solar panels, for example. It’s not clear that this is the case with HRC but if the EU finds as such it should not come as a surprise.
It’s also worth noting that Vietnam is currently trying to reduce the impact of trade remedies from the US by having itself redesignated as a market economy–it is currently considered a non-market economy which means that in trade remedies cases prices are calculated based on a comparable third country. This can often lead to much higher anti-dumping duties than might be the case using local prices.