Vietnam’s corrosion-resistant steel faces anti-circumvention probe in US
The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has received a request for investigation into the alleged circumvention of anti-dumping duties by Vietnam’s corrosion-resistant steel products (CORE) made from cold rolled steel (CRS) and hot rolled steel (HRS) imported from Japan.
The request was submitted by Steel Dynamics, Inc., a domestic manufacturer of the US, according to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam (TRAV).
The plaintiff held that after the US investigated and imposed anti-dumping duties on the CRS and HRS from Japan in 2015, the import of those products from Japan into the US has declined considerably while the import of CORE from Vietnam has increased sharply.
It accused Vietnam of importing the CRS and HRS from Japan to manufacture the products subject to investigation, and that this manufacturing was not considered substantial modifications as it only added a little to the total CORE value exported to the US.
The US is imposing anti-dumping duty rates of 71.35% and 26.81% on the CRS and HRS imported from Japan, respectively.
TRAV asked related business associations, producers, and exporters to review the export of the investigated products, learn about the US’s investigation procedures, provide information requested by the DOC, and keep contact with TRAV to receive assistance when necessary.
In 2018, the US launched a similar probe into Vietnam’s CORE products, which it found to have circumvented duties on products from China, Taiwan (China), and the Republic of Korea. Given this, the Vietnamese products were subject to the duties levied on similar products from China, Taiwan, and the RoK.
