The utility scale wind towers, a product of UBI Tower headquartered in Hai Duong province, has become the defendant in a lawsuit raised by the US Wind Tower Trade Coalition, an alliance of four companies.

The information, which was spread out in the first days of 2012, has been confirmed by Nguyen Van Thu, Chair of the Vietnam Association of Mechanical Industry VAMI, after he received a report from UBI Tower.

Prior to that, the Competition Administration Department (CAD), an arm of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) had confirmed that the department received the notice about the lawsuit on December 29, 2011, against the wind towers used to generate electricity from wind, which are imported from Vietnam and China.

The plaintiffs include Broadwind Towers Inc; DMI Industries; Katana Summit LLC and Trinity Structures. 

Also according to CAD, the dumping margin accused by the plaintiffs is 59.1 percent, which has been calculated based on the sale prices of the products in the US, and the referred production costs in India.

Thu said that UBI is one of the very few companies in Vietnam that makes this kind of equipments. He knows another company in this field – a joint venture between a Vietnamese company and a South Korean partner, located in Ba Ria- Vung Tau province.

The lawsuit has been raised after UBI has won the international bid to provide the equipments to a project. The value of the bid package is 14 million dollars.

According to Thu, the plaintiffs are the US companies, which also make this kind of equipments and lost in the above said bid.

“To date, we have just received the report from UBI, while we have not got information from CAD,” Thu said. 

“I really feel surprised when such a precision engineering product with very high quality could become the target of an anti-dumping lawsuit,” he said.

According to Oregonlive.com, the group of US enterprises think that Chinese wind towers with activities in Vietnam have dumped their products in the US with very low prices thanks to the subsidization of the Chinese authorities. The group of US enterprises have pointed out 40 subsidization programs and tax reduction policies.

Also according to Thu, this is for the first time a product of the mechanical engineering industry faces an anti-dumping lawsuit, therefore, both the company and the association feel embarrassed now.

“The things we need to do in the immediate time is to learn more about the case. Since there has been no precedent in the field, we still do not know what we should do,” he said.

“Therefore, we wish that the government and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to check the information and inform to us, or instruct us of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry to discuss the reactions in this case,” he continued.

Meanwhile, on the phone conservation with Saigon Tiep Thi’s reporters, Deputy Director of CAD Nguyen Phuong Nam said the US has not applied the anti-dumping duties on the product yet, while this could be seen as a warning. Nam said that he was on business and he would check the information.

“However, in case a Vietnamese product faces the anti-dumping lawsuit, CAD would joint forces with associations to do necessary things to deal with the case in order to avoid the anti-dumping tax,” he said.

In related news, steel wire garment hangers now face the dual anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures lawsuit.

Source: VNN