Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has announced that it has decided not to raise the import duty on hot rolled coil (HRC) for now.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the ministry had published a draft plan and proposed increasing the import duty on HRC from zero percent to five percent, to protect the local market from the inflow of Chinese imports.
Following the announcement of the draft plan, Vietnamese steelmaker Hoa Sen Group and the Vietnam Steel Association had filed petitions against this policy, saying that this would not limit imports from China because China is part of the free trade agreement with ASEAN countries which enables it to enjoy a zero percent import duty on HRC exports to Vietnam, and also, that the increase on import duty would increase the price of products as well, reducing the competitiveness of Vietnamese coated steel.
The Vietnam Steel Association stated that, if the import tax increases to five percent, the average raw material prices in Vietnam will be eight to nine percent higher than world prices and this will cause an increase in finished product prices as well. Furthermore, Vietnamese hot rolled coil production capacity is not sufficient to meet domestic production needs and that is why the country ought to import HRC to serve production.