Vietnam exported over 400,000 tonnes of construction steel in the third quarter of 2020, increasing by 4 percent and 37 percent compared to the first and second quarters, respectively, according to the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
Consumption of steel in the first seven months of 2020 fell 9.6 percent year-on-year to 12.37 million tonnes, according to the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
With an array of free trade agreements (FTAs) inked and coming into force, countries around the world have also increased technical barriers to protect their domestic industries, exposing many Vietnamese businesses to the risk of losing markets if they lack thorough preparations.
The Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has sent a consultation letter to the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry asking it to exclude Vietnam from three safeguard investigations on some steel products.
The European market is expected to become a key target of Vietnamese steel exporters when the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) fully comes into effect, insiders have said.
The Vietnam Steel Association (VSA)’s member enterprises suffered a strong reduction in production and business in the first quarter of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vietnamese steelmakers were in need of State support to minimise the damage caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which could well reach a pandemic as dozens of countries reported new infections, said industry leaders and experts.
The Vietnamese steel industry is expected to face difficulties this year due to an increase in production capacity, falling demand and protectionist measures by countries to reduce imports, according to experts.
The US’ imposition of duties of up to 456 percent on certain steel products shipped from Vietnam would not significantly harm the country’s steel industry, according to industry insiders.
The Ministry of Finance has postponed its plan of increasing the most-favoured nation (MFN) tariff on imported hot rolled steel coil (HRC) from zero percent to 5 percent after collecting opinions from businesses and experts.
As Vietnam joins more international trade agreements, dealing with and overcoming trade defence measures has become a top priority for Vietnamese businesses.
The freshly-signed EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) will help the Vietnamese steel sector expand export markets in Europe, industry insiders said.
The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced preliminary rulings on the circumvention inquiries into Vietnamese cold-rolled steel (CRS) and corrosion-resistant steel (CORE) exports made from materials imported from Chinese Taiwan and the Republic of Korea (RoK).
In the second half of this year, increasing competition in product quality, prices and market share are predicted to force steel companies to work harder to maintain their foothold in the market.
Vietnam’s steel industry is facing 47 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations from importing countries, accounting for one-third of the total cases of Vietnamese goods, according to a report from the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
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