Vietnamese steel traders have demanded that the government adjust regulations on
scrap imports since the steel industry faces raw material shortage.
The Environment Law, which came into effect as of July 1, 2006, restricted
scrap imports for
trading companies.
According to the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), the regulation has caused raw material shortage for certain plants using
scrap as the main raw material in their
billet productions.
The regulation allowed only
manufacturing companies to import
scrap; however,
manufacturing companies have difficulty in importing
scrap themselves due to problems such as financial insufficiency. As a result, many
billet steel plants have to suspend operations, and steel producers have to meet their
billet requirements via imports instead of domestic market.
Upon these developments in the Vietnamese market, a group of Vietnamese steel traders asked the government to adjust the regulation.