China said Thursday it has opened an anti-dumping investigation into imports of a grade of electrical steel from Japan, South Korea and the European Union.
The Commerce Ministry said the probe is aimed at determining if the imports of grain-oriented flat-rolled electrical steel have damaged the Chinese steel industry.
The steel is used in manufacturing such products as motors and transformers.
The start of the Chinese investigation follows the European Union's decision in May to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of the steel from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
The European Union's provisional decision was made following a complaint lodged in June 2014 by the European Steel Association.
Under the decision, Chinese companies, including Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. and Wuhan Iron & Steel Co., have been slapped with anti-dumping duties of 28.7 percent, while two Japanese firms, JFE Steel Corp. and Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp., have faced duties of 34.2 percent and 35.9 percent, respectively.