Vietnam reviewing AD duties on stainless steel in 4 Asian territories

Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has started the final review into anti-dumping measures imposed on stainless cold-rolled steel from China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia, it announced on October 3.

The review satisfies the requests for it made by domestic stainless steel manufacturers – including Posco VST and Inox Hoa Binh – to the ministry on September 12.

The ministry’s Department of Trade Remedies should complete the final review by July 2019, although the deadline may be extended by a maximum of three months if necessary.

Vietnam first imposed the anti-dumping duties in October 2014 for a period of five years, before revising the tax rates in May 2016 after the first review and then again in July this year after the second review.

In the latest revision in July, most of the duties against steelmakers in the four territories were kept unchanged at 9.31-37.29%. Only one Indonesian producer was subject to a lowered rate of 6.64%, compared to 13.03% previously.

The duties apply to products with the following HS tariff codes: 7219.32.00; 7219.33.00; 7219.34.00; 7219.35.00; 7219.90.00; 7220.20.10; 7220.20.90; 7220.90.10; 7220.90.90.

Fastmarkets MB’s assessment of import prices for benchmark 304 stainless 2mm trimmed cold-rolled coil was $2,100-2,160 per tonne cif East Asian ports for the week ended October 3, the same as a week earlier amid a slowdown in trading activity.

A slight downtrend is expected for Asia’s stainless flat steel import prices during the final quarter of 2018, amid stagnant demand and the persistent issue of oversupply, market sources told Fastmarkets MB.