The anti-dumping duties will apply to certain extruded aluminium products produced by 16 Chinese companies, with the tax rate varying depending on the Chinese producer. These rates had been applied temporarily since June. 

The decision follows an investigation launched in January by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), which found that the Chinese dumping activities had seriously hurt domestic aluminium producers, some of whom had to halt production and lay off large numbers of workers.

In some cases, the aluminium, which had already been blocked by other countries with trade barriers or anti-dumping measures, was being sold at lower than production costs, MoIT said.

The anti-dumping duty aims to minimize losses being caused to the domestic aluminium producing industry, which is on the brink of bankruptcy due to large amounts of cheap Chinese aluminium being imported into Vietnam, the ministry noted. 

According to MoIT, the volume of Chinese extruded aluminium products imported into Vietnam, not including volumes brought into economic zones to process for exports, has reached 62,000 tons so far this year, nearly double that of last year.

The anti-dumping measure complies with the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Law on Foreign Trade Administration, it said.

Also last year, the U.S. conducted a tax evasion investigation on some extruded aluminium products imported from Vietnam, concluding in September that some of them were evading anti-dumping duties the U.S. has imposed on Chinese products. The U.S. then imposed an anti-dumping tariffs of up to 374.15 percent on those imports, the ministry noted.

It also said that some of the product codes it had just levied anti-dumping duties on matched those of Vietnamese exports previously slapped with U.S. duties, so the new taxes will help prevent Chinese imports being rerouted through Vietnam to evade tax.