HCMC – Opportunities for local cold rolled steel coil exports have been reduced because of high anti-dumping duties imposed by Brazil and Indonesia, the major importers of the nation’s products, an official of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) said.

Cold rolled stainless steel coil exports to Brazil by Posco VST now are slapped with an import tax rate of 35.6%, a threatening barrier to the exportation of Vietnamese cold rolled steel coil to the major importer holding up to 30% of the total cold rolled steel coil export volume, the official said last week after an announcement of the Vietnam Competition Authority under the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the decision of Brazil after an anti-dumping investigation into the items.

As Brazil still considers Vietnam a nation with a non-market economy, it has adopted the statistics of Taiwan for tax calculations pushing up the tax rate to a costly level. The tax rate imposed on Vietnamese steel products is the highest compared to duties of 7.1% to 33% on steel items from Taiwan, the U.S., Finland, South Korea, Germany and South Korea facing the same investigation.

According to VSA’s official, Vietnam now has only a few cold rolled steel coil exporters such as Posco VST and Hoa Sen Group. Cold rolled stainless steel coil exports totaled roughly 250,000 tons in January-September, falling nearly 10% over the same period in 2012, with the steel export volume by Posco VST reaching about 240,000 tons.

The official noted local cold rolled steel coil products exported to Indonesia this year had been imposed with import tax rates of 13.5-36.6% in line with a final decision of the Indonesia Anti-Dumping Committee issued in December, 2012. That’s why Vietnamese steelmakers have gradually shifted to Brazil as another importer to avoid the high duties, he added.

The traditional markets of Vietnamese cold rolled steel coil are Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand and Cambodia among others.

Source: Saigon Times