The trade office stressed that Vietnam is one of the steel exporters which will be affected by the EU’s extension.
The regulation has been issued following an investigation lodged by 14 EU member states, highlighting that safeguard measures are needed in order to prevent or remedy serious damages done to the EU’s steel industry.
The extension of adjustments has been attributed to high levels of global overcapacity in steel coupled with an increase in exports from China to third countries, particularly to Asia, which in turn has led to rising exports from those third countries to the EU.
The EU’s investigation revealed that along with Vietnam, both Indonesia and Malaysia have achieved capacity growth rates of between 35% and 95%, while steel demand has decreased.
According to the OECD steel committee, with the demand in the EU market falling significantly, the global steel demand is anticipated to slow down for the duration of the year and into 2025 as the ongoing economic uncertainties continue to weigh on the steel market in the remaining quarters of the year.
Vietnam exported 11.1 million tonnes of steel worth US$8.35 billion last year, up 32.6% in volume and 4.5% in value compared to figures from 2022.
The ASEAN market represented the largest consumer of Vietnamese steel with 3.5 million tonnes worth US$2.4 billion, down 1.1% in volume and 17.1% in value on-year.
The EU market ranked second with 2.55 million tonnes worth US$1.89 billion, up 86.2% in volume and 29.0% in value. This was followed by the US with 1.08 million tonnes worth US$851.9 million, up 58.8% in volume and 1.2% in value compared to the previous year.
