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Print[Ferro-alloys.com] Malaysian steel exporters said Vietnam has unilaterally imposed anti-dumping tariffs on locally-produced cold-rolled stainless steel coils in a move that could jeapordise intra-Asean trade and spark off tit-for-tat moves by other countries.
On Christmas Day, Vietnam’s Industry and Trade Ministry had issued provisional anti-dumping measures on Bahru Stainless Sdn Bhd, a steel exporter of cold-rolled stainless steel coils based in Johor Baru.
According to the ministry’s website, Vietnamese authorities have imposed anti-dumping duty rate of 14.38% on Bahru Stainless and other Malaysian producers of the product. This is considered one of the highest anti-dumping tariffs after Taiwan’s 30.73%, Indonesia (12.03%) and China (6.99%). In comparison, the current import duty rates ranges from 0% to 10%.
“We did not expect this and it is unfair. There were no bilateral talks and Vietnam’s move will certainly impact our exports to the country, and impede intra-Asean trade,” Malaysian Iron and Steel Industry Federation (MISIF) president Soh Thian Lai told The Malaysian Reserve yesterday.
Bahru Stainless is the only Malaysian company that exports about 7,000 metric tonnes of cold-rolled stainless steel to Vietnam, estimated at about RM50 million annually. Malaysian companies export nearly 60,000 metric tonnes of the steel product worth nearly RM500 million yearly to international markets.
According to Vietnamese media, Posco VST, a wholly-owned subsidiary of South Korean steel giant Posco, alleged that stainless steel products from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan hurt its business in Vietnam.
Reportedly, Posco VST suffered accumulated losses amounting to US$66 million (RM216.98 million) since it began its operations in Vietnam three years ago, largely due to competition from these exporting countries.
Soh also said it was unfair to penalise the Malaysian company due to pricing and moreover the quantity exported to Vietnam was not huge.
“If Vietnam takes anti-dumping measures, then any of our members that suffered due to anti-dumping will start to take similar action. Other Asean countries will also start doing the same,” he said.
Soh, who is also YKGI Holdings Bhd group MD and CEO, said the anti-dumping exercise by Vietnam would not help the stainless steel product industries within Asean as trade of the commodity had dipped from 10% to 6% since 2009.
Only about two million tonnes of the product are traded among Asean countries. Posco owns a Malaysian operation in Pulau Indah and commenced production of hotdip galvanised iron and electro-galvanised iron in 2008.
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