U.S. probes electrical steel products from five foreign countries

The U.S. Commerce Department announced Thursday that it initiated trade probes into imports of electrical steel products from five foreign countries.

The products under investigation are cold-rolled and flat- rolled alloy steel products used in electric power industry, whose technical name is non-oriented electrical steel, the department said in a statement.

The investigations are in response to a request from AK Steel Corporation, a steel producer based in the U.S. state of Ohio.

It alleged that those electrical steel products from countries including Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, China and Sweden were sold below the fair value of the products in the U.S. market at dumping margins ranging from 16 percent to 407.52 percent, and those from China and the Republic of Korea received improper government subsidies.

The department launched the anti-dumping duty investigations against the products from the above mentioned five countries and countervailing duty inquiries against products from China and the Republic of Korea.

The International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. trade authority, was scheduled to make its preliminary inquiry determination around Dec. 6.

The probes will continue if the ITC determines that the imports of electrical steel products from the five countries materially injure or threaten the domestic industry of the States. The Commerce Department will then make its determination of improper dumping or subsidies early next year.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has kept urging Washington to abide by its commitment against protectionism and help maintain a free, open and just international trade environment.