Vietnam imported 7.5 million tons of steel in the first four months of this year, up 48% against the corresponding period last year, according to the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
VSA Vice President Nguyen Van Sua said a huge volume of steel ingots and finished steel products has been imported into Vietnam in spite of temporary safeguard duties of 23.3% imposed on steel ingots and 14.2% on long steel products on March 22 in the form of additional import duty.
This was attributable to a high demand of the steel industry for semi-finished steel products, including hot-rolled steel, which Vietnam has not been able to produce yet. As a result, the country has to buy around 8-9 million tons of hot-rolled steel annually.
While this challenge would cause pressure on domestic producers, it also encouraged them to improve technological qualifications and management capacity and build brand names, Mr Sua noted.
Source: VOV