A huge volume of steel ingots and finished steel products have been imported into Vietnam in spite of temporary safeguard duties of 23.3% being imposed on steel ingots and 14.2% on long steel products on March 22 in the form of an additional import duty. This increase was attributed to high demand by the steel industry for semi-finished steel products, including hot-rolled steel, which Vietnam is as yet unable to produce. As a result, the country has to buy eight to nine million tonnes of hot-rolled steel annually.
