Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade said April 2 that it will impose temporary anti-circumvention duties of 27.83% on hot-rolled coils with a width between 1,880 mm and 2,300 mm from China.

The measures are set to take effect 15 days from the date of the announcement, according to a government notice seen by Platts.

The decision came seven months after the Vietnamese authorities initiated an investigation into imports of wider-width HRC last October.

MOIT said preliminary findings indicated that imports from China were circumventing existing antidumping duties through minor product modifications.

Earlier in March 2025, Vietnam started to impose antidumping duties on Chinese HRC of up to 1,880 mm width.

The ministry added that an influx of such imports had caused injury and undermined the effectiveness of existing trade remedies.

The ministry also reiterated that the duties apply to hot-rolled steel products from China with widths greater than 1,880 mm and up to 2,300 mm.

The targeted goods include flat-rolled iron and steel products — of alloy or non-alloy—hot-rolled and with thicknesses between 1.2 mm and 25.4 mm.

The products under investigation are classified under the following HS codes: 7208.25.00, 7208.26.00, 7208.27.19, 7208.27.99, 7208.36.00, 7208.37.00, 7208.38.00, 7208.39.20, 7208.39.40, 7208.39.90, 7208.52.00, 7208.53.00, 7208.54.90, 7208.90.90, 7211.14.15, 7211.14.16, 7211.14.19, 7211.19.13, 7211.19.19, 7211.90.12, 7211.90.19, 7225.30.90, 7225.40.90, 7225.99.90, 7226.91.10, and 7226.91.90.

Products excluded from the probe include hot-rolled steel with carbon content exceeding 0.3% by mass, hot-rolled steel plates of 10 mm thickness or more, and other products already exempt from current import duties.

A Vietnam-based trader said the move was expected, and that the impact would likely be minimal as buying for Chinese HRC had already cooled since the probe was announced.

“It was expected in Q1 this year, so people have stopped buying since late last year. There remains very low buying interest for Chinese material,” the trader said.

The number of heards for deals, offers, bids and indications of Chinese HRC reported on a CFR Vietnam dropped from 153 in March 2025 to 57 in March 2026, according to spot market data compiled by Platts.

Specifically, in March 2025, when provisional antidumping duties were announced against Chinese regular-width coils, 130 out of the 157 were for coils with a width of 1,900-2,000 mm.