THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has rejected an appeal from Vietnamese exporter NCL Trading Joint Stock Company against anti-dumping duties imposed on its Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) Type 1 exports to the Philippines.
The company had been charged with exporting OPC Type 1 to the Philippines at prices lower than their normal value in the Vietnamese domestic market.
The decision, Department Administrative Order No. 26-05, was signed by Trade Secretary Cristina Roque on July 10 and posted online Monday.
DTI upheld the Tariff Commission’s findings that the duties — first imposed in 2023 for five years — will run their full term. NCL Trading and another Vietnamese firm, Vissai Ninh Binh JSC, will keep paying their lower, recently adjusted rates instead of the steeper “All Others’ Rate.”
NCL Trading raised three main arguments in seeking to have the duties dropped or reduced, all of which were rejected.
First, it claimed the government lacked transparency by failing to explain the reasons for its findings, but the Commission said trade rules only require disclosure of the data used, not DTI’s reasoning — and noted that NCL had already been given the relevant data, sources, and calculations.
Second, NCL argued that the duty computation was unfair, since it had no domestic sales in Vietnam or export sales in other markets, forcing regulators to estimate a fair market value. The Commission addressed this by deducting a standard 4 percent trader’s profit from NCL’s export price to allow a fair comparison with factory prices — a method DTI said is legal and consistent with past rulings.
Third, NCL contended that the case failed to prove its imports were still injuring local manufacturers, but the Commission said this type of interim review does not require a full injury investigation, and that evidence of continuing or likely dumping was enough to justify keeping the duties in place.
Under the final rates, NCL Trading will pay a 2.12 percent dumping margin (about $0.82 per metric ton) on Type 1 cement, with no penalty on Type 1P.
Vissai Ninh Binh JSC will pay 10.16 percent ($4.03/MT) on Type 1 cement, while other companies face duties of up to 23.33 percent.
New exporters or those who refuse to cooperate with the investigation will be charged the maximum All Others’ Rate of 23.07 percent for Type 1 and 23.33 percent for Type 1P cement.
Companies with negligible or negative dumping margins remain exempt from additional penalties.
