The European Commission (EC) recently issued a notice of provisional anti-dumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products imported from Egypt, Japan, and Việt Nam into the European Union (EU), the Trade Remedies Authority of Việt Nam reported on Saturday.

The EC’s investigation was initiated on August 8, 2024, based on a complaint filed by the European Steel Association.

The goods under investigation are some hot-rolled steel products with the Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes 7208, 7211, 7225, and 7226.

The period for the anti-dumping investigation was from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024; the injury investigation period was from January 1, 2021, to March 31, 2024.

Based on company data and adjustments as required by regulations, the EC concluded preliminary dumping margins for Vietnamese companies range from 0 to 12.1 per cent.

The EC’s preliminary conclusion on injury stated that the EU hot-rolled steel coil industry had suffered significantly, reflected in factors such as market share, price impact, profitability, investment, and employment.

The Trade Remedies Authority recommends that the Việt Nam Steel Association (VSA), manufacturers and exporters of the investigated products thoroughly study the investigation documents and fully cooperate with the EC during the investigation process.

They should also regularly coordinate and provide information to the authority body to receive timely support.

During the investigation period, Vietnamese companies imported iron ore and coking coal from various countries due to insufficient domestic supply in both quantity and quality. Therefore, input prices were not influenced by the domestic raw materials market, according to the Trade Remedies Authority.

Regarding the complainant’s allegation that the Vietnamese Government's export tax policies lowered the prices of iron ore and coal – which are the primary inputs for hot-rolled steel production and account for up to 40 per cent of production costs – and created an unfair advantage for dumped exports to the EU, the EC preliminarily concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support this allegation.

Certain goods are excluded from the investigation, including stainless steel or grain-oriented silicon electrical steel; specialty and high-hardness tool steel; stainless steel in coil form, without embossed patterns, with a thickness greater than 10mm and width of 600mm or more; and those with a thickness from 4.75mm to 10mm and width from 2,050mm or more. — BIZHUB/VNS

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