According to customs data, in May 2024, hot-rolled steel (HRC) imports into Vietnam continued to increase sharply, reaching more than 1.1 million tons, up 20% compared to the previous month. Notably, hot-rolled steel imported from China accounted for 75% with more than 830 thousand tons.

HRC steel imports in May accounted for 192% of domestic production.

In the first 5 months of this year, businesses spent 2.96 billion USD to import over 5 million tons of hot-rolled steel, equivalent to 179% of the total volume of the HRC production industry in our country. Of which, the amount imported from China accounted for 3.694 million tons with a turnover of 2.12 billion USD.

At the end of April, the Government Office sent a document to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance informing them of Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai's direction requesting to handle the issue raised by the press regarding the sharp increase in hot-rolled steel imports, mainly from China and India.

The Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and relevant agencies to review and grasp the situation of increased hot-rolled steel imports in recent times to proactively implement appropriate, timely and effective measures within its authority and legal regulations, protecting the legitimate interests of the domestic manufacturing industry in accordance with international practices and a fair competitive environment.

Regarding the issue of increased imports of HRC steel, on June 14, the Department of Trade Defense (Ministry of Industry and Trade) issued information on the process of receiving dossiers requesting investigation to apply anti-dumping measures on hot-rolled steel products from China.

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Hot rolled steel imports continue to increase sharply. Illustration photo: HP

Accordingly, on March 19, the Department of Trade Defense (investigating agency) received the dossier from companies representing the domestic manufacturing industry (the requesting party), requesting an investigation to apply anti-dumping measures on hot-rolled steel products from India and China.

On April 1, the investigation agency issued a notice requesting the requesting party to supplement the content of the above investigation request file.

On April 26, the requesting party submitted additional information and documents as notified by the investigation agency.

On May 13, the investigation agency issued a notice requesting the requesting party to continue supplementing a number of contents of the investigation request file for the second time.

On May 31, the requesting party submitted additional information and documents as requested by the investigation agency.

And on June 14, the investigation agency confirmed that the investigation request file was complete and valid according to the provisions of the law on trade defense.

The Department of Trade Defense announced that within 45 days from the date of confirmation of complete and valid dossier, the investigation agency will appraise the dossier to submit to the Minister of Industry and Trade for consideration to conduct an investigation or not to conduct an investigation of the case.

The contents of the dossier appraisal include: determining the legal representative status of the domestic manufacturing industry of the organization or individual submitting the dossier according to the provisions of the Law on Foreign Trade Management; determining evidence of dumping of imported goods causing or threatening to cause significant damage to the domestic manufacturing industry or significantly hindering the formation of the domestic manufacturing industry.

To serve the appraisal of dossiers, as well as to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises producing and trading goods proposed for investigation, the investigation agency requests domestic enterprises producing and trading goods similar to the goods proposed for investigation to provide relevant information, including: information on the type of enterprise (production, trade, etc.); design capacity and output of hot-rolled steel products from 2020 to 2023; the company's opinion on the case (agree, disagree, no opinion); any other documents/evidence that the company believes are related to the case.

The deadline for providing the above information is July 5, 2024.

Steel imports continue to increase dramatically, Chinese goods flood the market Last April, hot-rolled steel (HRC) imports into Vietnam continued to increase dramatically, of which hot-rolled steel imported from China accounted for 71%.
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