Vietnam's ministry of finance has announced the imposition of a 10 percent import duty on alloy steel with effect from April 20, aiming to stop imports of alloy steel of very low quality from benefiting from zero tax.
The higher import duty on alloy steel has been viewed as a reaction to recent discoveries by the Vietnam Steel Association and the ministries of finance and of industry and trade that some traders have been importing carbon steel but claiming it to be boron-added steel in order to benefit from the zero-tariff policy - as SteelOrbis previously reported.
Vietnam Steel Association general secretary Dinh Huy Tam said that the finance and trade and industry ministries concluded at a recent meeting that claiming carbon steel to be an alloy by adding a small quantity of boron is tantamount to fraud.