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The Trade Defense Agency has issued a questionnaire for foreign manufacturers/exporters in the investigation to combat trade defense evasion measures for certain hot-rolled steel products originating from the People’s Republic of China.
Accordingly, the Trade Defense Agency has sent the official investigation questionnaire to known foreign manufacturing/exporting enterprises to respond. The deadline for submitting responses is before 5:00 PM on December 24, 2025 (Hanoi time).
On October 27, 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Decision No. 3176/QĐ-BCT on initiating an investigation into trade defense evasion measures for certain hot-rolled steel products originating from the People’s Republic of China.
Specifically, these products include flat-rolled iron or steel, alloyed or non-alloyed, hot-rolled, with a thickness ranging from 1.2mm to 25.4mm, a width greater than 1,880mm and less than or equal to 2,300mm, not further processed beyond hot-rolling, pickled or unpickled, not clad, coated, plated, or laminated, with or without oil coating, and a carbon content of 0.30% or less by weight.
According to FPTS, this decision was made in the context of a sharp increase in the import volume of wide hot-rolled coil (HRC) steel into Vietnam, reaching 832,000 tons in the first seven months of 2025, 18.9 times higher than the same period last year. This surge occurred after regular HRC steel (with dimensions smaller than 1,880 mm) from China was officially subject to anti-dumping duties in July 2025.
FPTS assesses that the likelihood of China facing additional anti-evasion trade defense taxes is very high, as wide HRC steel is essentially regular HRC steel with larger dimensions. If this occurs, HPG and Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation are expected to benefit the most as the only domestic entities capable of producing HRC steel amidst a severe supply shortage in the industry.
Previously, on July 4, 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Decision No. 1959/QĐ-BCT, imposing official anti-dumping duties on certain hot-rolled steel products from the People’s Republic of China and terminating the anti-dumping investigation for similar products from the Republic of India.
On June 3, 2025, the Trade Defense Agency received a request for an anti-dumping duty evasion investigation for certain hot-rolled steel products with widths greater than 1,880mm and less than or equal to 2,300mm, originating from the People’s Republic of China. The request was filed by two domestic manufacturers: Hoa Phat Dung Quat Steel Joint Stock Company and Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation.
On August 22, 2025, and September 10, 2025, the Trade Defense Agency received the third supplementary dossier in response to Notice No. 116/TB-PVTM dated August 7, 2025.
On September 18, 2025, the Trade Defense Agency issued Notice No. 149/TBPVTM, confirming that the request dossier was complete and valid under Vietnamese law regarding trade defense evasion measures.
