Rumors for Vietnam Stainless Steel under US Anti-circumvention Investigation
Since February 2017, the U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on stainless steel products (HS codes 7219 and 7220 categories) originating from China at anti-dumping rates from 63.86% to 76.64% and countervailing rates from 75.60% to 190.71%. Meanwhile, the U.S. import duty rate applicable to Vietnam's stainless steel sheet is 0%.
On July 6, 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a notice stating that the first final anti-dumping review ruling was made on stainless steel plates and strips imported from China, ruling that if the anti-dumping duties in this case were eliminated, it would result in the dumping of the Chinese products involved in the case continuing or recurring at a dumping margin of 76.64%.
Despite the high trade barriers, China's stainless steel exports to the U.S. have been on the rise since the second half of 2021. from January to August 2022, the cumulative volume was about 88,000 tons, an increase of 40,000 tons or 82.7% year-on-year.
On the one hand, due to the strategic transformation of the U.S. ATI, the supply is down; on the other hand, the U.S. subsidies to stimulate consumer demand, causing the U.S. stainless steel prices to increase. In this to way makes China's stainless steel has a price advantage.
Vietnam's stainless steel exports are mainly to India and the United States. The amount of stainless steel exported to India in 2021 amounted to more than 60,000 tons, and the amount exported to the United States is nearly 40,000 tons.
In recent years, the U.S. imports of stainless steel from Vietnam have also become a growing trend, January-July 2022, the cumulative volume of about 34,600 tons, an increase of 15,300 tons or 79.3% year-on-year.
U.S. imports of stainless steel products from Vietnam are mainly cold-rolled coils, accounting for about 90%, flanges and other pipe fittings account for about 8%.
It is reported that there is no stainless steel mill factory in Vietnam, only POSCO of South Korea and Vietnam Yongjin two stainless steel cold rolling factories, capacity of about 250,000 tons / year. The hot rolled mother coils required mainly rely on imports, and mostly China, Indonesia and South Korea.
In 2021, Vietnam imports about 340,000 tons of stainless steel from mainland China, about 250,000 tons from Indonesia, and about 170,000 tons from South Korea.
Vietnam currently imposes anti-dumping duties on cold-rolled stainless steel products originating from China, Malaysia and Indonesia, with rates of about 17.94%-31.85% in mainland China; 37.29% in Taiwan Province; 11.09%-22.69% in Malaysia; and 10.91%-25.06% in Indonesia.
Comprehensive view, the volume of stainless steel exports from Vietnam to the United States is relatively small, the average monthly volume of only about 0.5 million tons, from the U.S. anti-circumvention investigation, it might be the same as the EU, for mostly protect the local steel trading.
