Dumping charges dropped

Calculated dumping margins – Vietnam and India
Source: Australian Anti-Dumping Commission

The Australian Government’s Anti-Dumping Commission, in a notice published in Australia on July 30, officially terminated its investigation of zinc coated (galvanised) steel exported from Vietnam and India.

Among others, Hoa Sen Group (Hoa Sen) and Nam Kim Steel Joint Stock Company (Nam Kim) have been designated as mandatory defendants of the investigation as the conductors of the largest export activity from Vietnam during the period in question.

Commissioner of the Anti-Dumping Commission?) Dale Seymour said, “I am satisfied that the goods exported to Australia during the investigation period by Hoa Sen were not dumped, and therefore I must terminate the investigation.”

The goods of all other Vietnamese exporters were determined to have been sold at a price lower than in Vietnam, constituting a breach of anti-dumping legislation. However, the volume and material damages were not substantial enough for the case to go on, Dale announced.

Hoang Ngoc Thuan, researcher of trade remedies at the Australian University of New South Wales, told VIR, “The active involvement of Vietnamese exporters since the beginning of the investigation helps prevent the commission from utilising the adverse facts available.”

Among 25 contacted suppliers, Hoa Sen and Nam Kim were classified as cooperative due to their submission of complete and satisfactory responses within a reasonable period, providing investigator with the necessary data to precede the case.

“This mirrors the increasing defensive capabilities of Vietnamese businesses after a long time of international persecution over dumping,” said Thuan.

In July 2014, Bluescope Steel Limited, the only Australian producer of steel, filed for a dumping margin of 16.26 per cent applicable to Vietnamese steel products exported to the country.

According to the plaintiff, the 12,524 tonnes of galvanised steel imported from Vietnam during 2013, which then only accounted for 6.9 per cent of the country’s total imports, had been “sold at lower prices than the average market levels, causing significant injury for theat country’s steel industry” through reductions in the profits of enterprises and jobs for locals.

Australian anti-dumping tolls currently apply to goods exported from China, Korea and Taiwan.