There will be a circular tightening imported steel.

In order to clarify the current picture of the steel industry, reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Pham Chi Cuong - Chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).

Currently, steel imported into Vietnam under the name of alloy steel has caused great difficulties for the domestic steel market. Could you please explain this phenomenon?

In the first 7 months of 2013, our country imported over 400,000 tons of Boron-containing steel coils (alloy steel); steel coils of diameter 6, 8, and cold-rolled steel coils of over 300,000 tons, this is a very large number.

Meanwhile, in the first 8 months of 2013, domestic enterprises only consumed about 3 million tons of construction steel (rolled steel accounted for 1/6); cold rolled steel consumed 728,000 tons, this figure is only equal to 50% of the capacity that domestic enterprises produce (1,300,000 tons). Cold rolled steel inventory (50%) is due to fierce competition with cheap cold rolled steel from China.

In my opinion, if there is no additional 50% of imported steel, domestic supply and demand will be sufficient and manufacturing enterprises will operate effectively.

- This situation is complicated, what do you think is the cause?

Previously, Vietnam taxed steel imported from China to Vietnam at 10%, but starting from 2012, implementing the ASEAN-China Agreement, the tax applied was only 5%. This is a big reduction, because the current domestic steel price is about 15 to 16 million VND/ton. If Chinese steel reduces its import tax by 5%, it will "win" domestic steel in terms of price.

Our difficulty is that we have not issued regulations on alloy steel. In fact, domestic enterprises have petitioned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to introduce administrative procedures to strictly control the amount of imported steel such as: Automatic import-export license... but the effectiveness is not high.

- It is known that the Ministry of Industry and Trade assigned the Import-Export Department, the Heavy Industry Department and the Science and Technology Department to draft a circular to guide and manage the quality of steel products imported into Vietnam. What is your opinion?

The draft circular is being consulted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Hopefully, after the circular is issued, the steel market will gradually stabilize. In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Science and Technology need to consider and stipulate that imported steel with 0.008% Boron element is not considered alloy steel. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs do not consider steel containing Boron as alloy steel; put this item under the 5% tax, with the aim of helping domestic steel enterprises reduce price competition, increase productivity, create jobs for workers and the State reduce tax losses.

According to baocongthuong-PH