The import value for steel and iron products continuously surged sharply in the first month of 2017 to 710 million USD, the General Statistics Office reported.

Import value for steel and iron products in January rose by up to 30 percent against the same period last year. (Photo: vatlieuxaydung.org.vn)

The value rose by up to 30 percent against the same period last year.

Last year, the figure was also high at 8 billion USD, up 7.3 percent against the previous year. The imports were mainly from China (accounting for 55.1 percent), the Republic of Korea (12.8 percent) and Taiwan (8.9 percent).

As a large steel import volume from China has caused major damage to domestic steel production, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has decided to apply trade defence measures to ensure fair competition with local products and promote the country’s steel sector.

For this purpose, certain kinds of steel ingots and long steel imported into Vietnam from various countries and territories have been subject to temporary safeguard duties of 23.3 percent and 14.2 percent respectively.