Vietnam's four ingot steel producers, Dinh Vu, Van Loi, Hoa Phat Steel Corporations and Hung Yen Mechanical Joint Stock Company, have filed a petition to the Vietnamese ministries of finance and of industry and trade calling for the import duty on ingot steel to be raised from five percent to 17 percent. The petition also seeks an increase in the import duty on finished steel from the current 12 percent to 17 percent.
The proposed increase will not affect Southeast Asian steel producers, who have been exempted from import tariffs since 2003 under an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreement. The club members include Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Local Vietnamese steelmakers are struggling to lure back customers who have been buying cheaper products from Southeast Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe.
The producers believe that the supply in domestic market will be high enough to meet domestic and export demand. Currently, a lot of countries and territories are offering to sell ingot steel to Vietnam, including Russia, Taiwan and Turkey. As a result, local ingot steel producers have been suffering and many mills have had to stop production.