Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s steel industry has highpotential to reach a production growth rate of 22 percent and expand exportmarkets this year.
However, this will be possible only if it overcomesdifficulties such as trade defence lawsuits and high imports, according to the VietnamSteel Association (VSA).
The sector faced 30 trade defence lawsuits from othercountries in 2017, many of which have continued into 2018.
These include anti-dumping cases for cold-rolled stainlesssteel, steel plates and H-shaped steel as well as trade defence cases relatedto pig iron, long steel and colour-coated steel sheet.
By March 2018, Vietnam had exported 446,000 tonnes of steelproducts for 321 million USD, up 38 percent in volume and 63 percent in valuecompared to the same period last year.
The quality of Vietnamese steel has met the demand of choosymarkets, such as the United States, Australia and Europe, rising to topposition in regional and world markets.
However, in the first few months of 2018, Vietnam imported1.2 million tonnes of steel worth 808 million USD, a drop of 5 percent involume and an increase of 22 percent in value.
VSA Vice President Nguyen Van Sua said despite a fall inimports and rise in exports, the volume of imported steel remained high.
According to him, the domestic steel industry was stilldependent on imports as the domestic production process was yet to besynchronised, along with low capacity in producing steel for the mechanicalmanufacturing sector. Meanwhile, domestic firms are unable to produce manyinput material products, such as hot-rolled steel and pig iron, thus makingproduction slow and expensive.
With the recent market recovery and extensive economicintegration, especially the signing of the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the upcoming signing of thefree trade agreement between Vietnam and the European Union, the Vietnamesesteel sector has the opportunity to expand markets, making the growth target ofmore than 20 percent feasible.
But the fact is when Vietnam increases steel exports, theimport market will strengthen trade defence measures.
Tran Tuan Duong, General Director of Hoa Phat Group, saidVietnamese firms should maintain the domestic market, while for exportactivities, they should adhere to the regulations of free trade agreements andactively cooperate with other countries when faced with anti-dumping lawsuitsto avoid losing markets or paying high taxes.
According to Duong, market protection solutions are notenough and businesses themselves should enhance their competitiveness and makeuse of all opportunities for development.
A representative of the Vietnam Steel Corporation saidobstacles to exports mostly came from trade barriers and defence measures ofimporting countries. Therefore, the corporation would continue to improveefficiency in production and business by enhancing market forecasts and havingflexible production and business activities according to market development.
Despite the lack of capacity and experience, Vietnamese firmscould still fight trade defence in the context of integration, therepresentative said.
VSA highlighted the need for cooperation with countries inthe face of trade defence problems, along with the development of professionalteams to deal with investigation and data gathering to protect steel firms indomestic and foreign markets.-VNA
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