The amount of hot-rolled coil (HRC) of wide size imported from China into Vietnam has increased abnormally since the announcement of anti-dumping tax on this product.
Budget loss of 2,300 billion VND after 6 months
According to customs data for the first 6 months of 2025, the import of HRC steel with widths of 1,880 mm or larger to Vietnam reached 215,000 tons, an increase of 26 times compared to the same period in 2024 (8,000 tons). In the first 6 months of 2025, the import volume of hot-rolled steel with widths from China to Vietnam reached nearly 650,000 tons, 15 times higher than the first 6 months of last year. Of which, 2,000 mm wide steel accounted for 74% of the import volume in the first 6 months of the year
Notably, the amount of HRC wide steel imported into Vietnam has increased abnormally since the Ministry of Industry and Trade in February decided to impose temporary anti-dumping tax (CBPG) on hot-rolled steel products imported from China, with tax rates ranging from 23.1 – 27.83%, applied from July 6 and lasting for 5 years, unless extended, changed or canceled according to regulations. This decision was based on investigation results showing that hot-rolled steel imported from China and India had dumping behavior, causing damage to the domestic manufacturing industry. However, the import volume from India was assessed as insignificant, accounting for only less than 3% of the total import volume. The Ministry of Industry and Trade affirmed that the tax rate was issued after the investigation agency determined that there was a link between cheap steel from China flooding the market and the significant damage to the domestic steel industry. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade decided to officially impose anti-dumping tax on some hot-rolled steel products from China and terminate the investigation into applying anti-dumping measures on some hot-rolled steel products from India.
It is worth mentioning that right after the anti-dumping tax came into effect, HRC steel with wide widths flooded in. If calculated according to the anti-dumping tax rate applied to Chinese hot-rolled steel at 27.83%, the imported output of HRC with widths of 1,900 mm or more in the past 6 months has caused a huge loss to the state budget, estimated at about 90 million USD, equivalent to 2,300 billion VND.
Domestic manufacturing enterprises said that wide-width steel is essentially no different from steel that is being taxed in terms of technical characteristics, purpose of use, and distribution channels. Therefore, it can be affirmed that the massive import of hot-rolled steel with wide widths into the domestic market is to evade trade defense measures and avoid anti-dumping tax in Vietnam.
Damage to the economy
Evading trade defense measures in general or anti-dumping tax in particular in Vietnam has happened quite a lot, especially in the steel industry. This behavior not only effectively eliminates the anti-dumping tax policy but also creates a distorted and unfair competitive environment, potentially posing a risk of systematic trade fraud. It directly affects domestic manufacturing enterprises and causes huge losses to the state budget, and can even affect the entire economy in the context of current global trade tensions.
Steel expert Pham Chi Cuong analyzed: many Chinese steel products have found loopholes to enter Vietnam. About 12-13 years ago, a large amount of Chinese steel containing boron alloy was massively imported into Vietnam when the import tax on alloy steel was 0%. Initially, some Chinese enterprises only mixed Boron into rolled steel products, but later they also mixed it into other steel products such as hot-rolled coil (HRC), hot-rolled steel plates and shaped steel to enjoy a 0% tax rate (while shaped steel products, rolled steel… at that time were subject to a tax of 5 – 10%).
Thus, the insignificant increase in width of HRC steel beyond the regulations on products subject to anti-dumping tax is also likely an act of evading this measure. That not only causes damage to the domestic manufacturing industry but also risks Vietnam being greatly affected in the context of world trade tensions. Because many enterprises will import source products such as hot-rolled coil steel to process and manufacture products and export to many places. This will put Vietnamese goods at risk of being “collateral damage” when countries have regulations on the origin of raw materials.
“The state management agency must clarify this issue because the Chinese steel industry is always promoting exports to the Southeast Asian market, including Vietnam. Affected manufacturing enterprises can propose to review and expand the group of products subject to anti-dumping tax on wide-gauge HRC steel imported into Vietnam,” Mr. Pham Chi Cuong noted.
According to Dr. Hoang Ngoc Thuan, Foreign Trade University, the sharp increase in the amount of wide-gauge HRC steel imported from China into Vietnam, coinciding with the time when narrower-gauge products were subject to tax, could be the first sign of anti-dumping tax evasion. If there is any doubt, domestic enterprises, especially the two plaintiff enterprises in the HRC steel anti-dumping lawsuit, can submit a petition to the state management agency, directly the Department of Trade Remedies (Ministry of Industry and Trade) to request an investigation into anti-dumping tax evasion according to regulations. Enterprises themselves need to be proactive because they are the units directly affected and have the best understanding of the characteristics and status of similar goods on the market. At that time, the state management agency will have to consider and conduct a detailed investigation. If the investigation results have sufficient, specific and reasonable evidence, the scope of anti-dumping tax can be expanded to apply to wide-sized HRC steel products imported into Vietnam.
