Steel rolls are loaded at the Hai Phong Port. Secondary steel importers in Viet Nam face an uphill struggle for survival after a new regulation says they have to announce the quality standards applied for goods in import contracts for customs clearance. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hung

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Secondary steel importers in Viet Nam are pleading with relevant management bodies for help because a newly-issued regulation on import steel quality is driving them to bankruptcy, according to Dien dan doanh nghiep (Business Forum) newspaper.

Under the Joint Circular No44/2013/TTLT-BCT-BKHCN issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Science and Technology that provide the management of domestically produced and imported steel quality, secondary steel importers in Viet Nam, have to announce the applying standards for goods in import contracts for customs clearance instead of only the origin of products and import contracts as done earlier.

According to Dang Nguyen Thanh Chau from Ha Long Company, secondary steel includes steel used ‘one-time' or stockpiled steel. However, it has the same quality as up-to-standard steel.

Most of the secondary steel is imported from the EU, Japan, Australia, South Korea and the US, so it is of good quality and even better than up-to-standard steel imported from China.

Domestic importers say they cannot meet the new regulations, which have come into force from June 1, 2014. They say that since secondary steel is mainly imported in small batches from numerous suppliers, there can be no unified standard for evaluation.

Tran Thanh Hai, Director of Dai Kim Hai Co, says that his company has been importing secondary steel from Japanese companies for many years and there is no evaluation of import steel.

According to the MoIT, the circular is aimed at protecting domestic consumers and producers against quality fraud and tax evasion.

However, secondary steel importers opine that the regulation should apply only for imported construction steel that has no origin of product. Since most of the secondary steel has the origin of product from developed countries, there can be no fraud in terms of quality, they claimed. — VNS