Vietnam’s leading steel producers Hoa Phat Group and Formosa Ha Tinh Steel (FHS) have applied to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, requesting an antidumping investigation on hot rolled coil (HRC) imports from China, according to local media reports.
The reason behind the opposition raised by the two producers is that the country’s HRC imports from China in the January-February period this year amounted to 1.4 million mt, which accounted for 74.2 percent of the total HRC import volume. Against this backdrop, Hoa Phat and FHS have taken action to protect the domestic market. However, seven domestic steel manufacturers including Hoa Sen Group have opposed the proposal made by Hoa Phat and FHS, claiming that HRC is the main raw material for hot dip galvanized coil, coated steel, steel pipes, structural steel and other products.
According to Hoa Sen Group, the current dumping margin is only 1.26 percent and therefore HRC products from China are not being dumped. The domestic HRC supply only meets 30 percent of the demand and galvanized steel producers still need to import HRC. Therefore, the company believes that Chinese HRC does not impose any threat to the domestic market and so it is opposed to antidumping measures.