Colour-coated steel produced at the Hoang Ha Group Joint Stock Company in the northern province of Quang Ninh. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Despite the imposition of anti-dumping duties oncolour-coated steel products by Indonesian authorities, Vietnamese steelproducers should not worry about the possibility of losing competitiveness,according to the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
Recently, Indonesia officially announced the application of anti-dumping dutieson colour-coated steel imports from Vietnam, from 12.01 percent to 28.49 percentin five years.
Concerns have been raised that this tax imposition will cause difficulties forVietnamese enterprises, and may cause them to lose the market. However, the VSAsaid that with large demand in this market, domestic producers will still beable to compete with rivals.
According to VSA, 60 percent of made-in-Vietnam colour-coated steel productsare exported to Southeast Asian markets including Indonesia, Thailand andMyanmar.
The Indonesian Anti-Dumping Committee (KADI) said that from July2015 to June 2016, Indonesia imported more than 224,000 tonnes of colour-coatedsteel, of which about 196,000 tonnes came from Vietnam and China, accountingfor 87.5 percent of the country’s total steel imports.
VSA Chairman Ho Nghia Dung said that the taxed enterprises are Nam Kim, Hoa Senand Ton Dong A. He attributed the anti-dumping measure to Indonesian suspicionthat Vietnamese steel enterprises imported raw materials from China forproduction.
He said "With tariffs ranging from 12 percent to more than 28 percent,exports will be more difficult. It is likely that businesses will have toreduce exports to the market.”
However, it is not likely that they will lose this market, because it has ahuge demand for galvanised steel sheets," Dung said.
"Businesses have expanded market to include Europe and the United States,and promoted exports to Southeast Asian countries,” he added.
However, the VSA Chairman also urged domestic enterprises to improve theircompetitiveness, especially in the context of integration and application ofsafeguard measures as much as today.
In recent years, steel production has been one of the industries most subjectedto trade lawsuits. By the end of 2017, out of a total of 124 trade defencecases against Vietnamese exports, there were up to 30 steel-related cases,mainly focusing on anti-dumping investigations.
Therefore, the steel industry needs to create a closed production chain fromlocal input supply to finished products and invest in advanced productiontechnology to reduce production costs and help businesses develop in a stableand sustainable fashion, Dung said.
In particular, to prevent traditional markets from being narrowed, VSA saidthat businesses need to invest in overseas markets where there is a shortage oflocal steel producers like Africa, South America, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia.
It is forecast that demand for steel in Indonesia and the Philippines willincrease. Countries in ASEAN-6 (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, thePhilippines, and Brunei) are expected to post a positive growth rate in steelconsumption to reach over 90 million tonnes by 2019. This is a good sign forVietnamese steel enterprises if they continue to promote exports to thesemarkets.
According to Ton Dong A Joint Stock Company, tariff barriers and non-tariffbarriers are challenging for exporters, especially in the steel industry.
By 2018, Ton Dong A targets to export 800,000 tonnes of steel products, so thecompany must ensure the quality of products is in accordance with internationalstandards by using high quality raw materials from Tier 1 suppliers.-VNS/VNA
VNA
