In the first seven months of 2015, Viet Nam imported 8.43 million tonnes of steel worth $4.47 billion, up 38.6 per cent in volume and 9.3 per cent in value year-on-year. — File Photo

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to issue a report on domestic steel producers that are facing stiff competition from cheap imported steel.

Vietnam News Agency reported last week that cheap imported steel is a concern to domestic producers. According to local producers, they must compete against a surplus of cheap steel imported by Chinese steel producers.

According to Wong Chao-Tung, President and Chief Executive Officer of the China Steel Sumikin Joint Stock Company, the US' anti-dumping investigation into China's steel trade has led China to ship its surplus of steel to Southeast Asian countries, including Viet Nam.

Wong said his company is collecting information to file complaints to the Viet Nam Competition Authority.

Viet Nam Steel Association (VSA) Vice Chairman Nguyen Van Sua said the amount of imported steel in July exceeded 1.72 million tonnes, a 4.8 per cent increase from the previous month and a 62.1 percent rise year-on-year. With a value of $792 million, it is up 10.5 per cent from the same period last year.

In the first seven months of 2015, Viet Nam imported 8.43 million tonnes of steel worth $4.47 billion, up 38.6 per cent in volume and 9.3 per cent in value year-on-year.

Of that amount, imports from China amounted for more than five million tonnes, or nearly 60 per cent of the supply - up 76 per cent from last year.

Meanwhile, Viet Nam exported 1.42 million tonnes worth more than $1 billion, down 5.2 per cent in volume and 11.4 per cent in value over the same period last year.

Sua said the VSA has implemented measures to create a technical barrier in order to prevent cheap steel from entering Viet Nam.

He also called for local enterprises to improve the quality of their products and reduce costs to keep prices low.

According to the VSA, its member enterprises produced 8.9 million tonnes of steel in the first eight months of this year, up 17.9 per cent from last year, and steel consumption reached 7.4 million tonnes, a rise of 17.7 per cent. — VNS