Insiders and experts have said the sheet steel industry needs to improvequality and bring down prices to combat fakes, which have becomepervasive.

Le The Bao, Chairman of the Vietnam Association forAnti-counterfeiting and Trademark Protection (VATAP), told Viet Nam Newsthat counterfeits are a hot issue in the country, affecting everyindustry, especially makers of sheet steel.

"Developingproduction" will help improve product quality and cut down prices,enabling the industry to take on counterfeits, something that "has beenstressed by the Government," he said.

Companies should makecheaper products targeted at rural consumers - a very big market - sothat low-income people could buy genuine products, he said. Le PhuocVu, Chairman of steel giant Hoa Sen Group, said his company will makeevery effort to fight fakes. Along with improving quality and reducingprices, it will also widen its distribution system, doubling the numberof branches around the country to 300 within three years, he promised.

Hiscompany's branches will lend equipment to customers to check productseven when they do not buy from them. There will be programmes to educateand inform people, and a hotline has been set up at 1800 1515 forcallers to inquire about real and fake steel sheets, he said.

Consumers must insist on a tax invoice if they want to join hands with manufacturers to fight counterfeits, he said.

TheVietnam Steel Association (VSA) and some traders called for usingmodern technology to imprint manufacturers' names and other informationon steel sheets, making it harder to fake them.

“The technology is very expensive, which will help curb the fraud," a marketer who asked not to be named said.

Onthe sideline of a conference organised by the VSA, the VATAP and theVietnam Economic Times late last month, the Market SurveillanceDepartment reported that in the first 10 months of the year it detectedand seized 10,000 tonnes of fake steel sheets.

The conferencealso heard that market watch officials routinely unearth fakesmasquerading as well-known brands like Ton Hoa Sen, VnsteelThang Longand Phuong Nam, seizing tens of thousands of tonnes of fake sheets andother products whose quality do not match up to claims.

NguyenVan Sua, VSA Deputy Chairman, said the counterfeits are produced innorthern provinces and cities like ThanhHoa, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Hanoiand PhuTho.

The fake sheets are flooding the market, causing much heartburn to legitimate producers.

AHoa Sen Group spokesperson told Viet Nam News that his company's marketshare kept rising steadily until last year, but has fallen this yearfrom 40 percent to 37 percent.

He blamed it squarely oncounterfeit products, adding they are likely to cost the company 118billion VND (5.6 million USD) in revenues this year.-VNA