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The period being examined runs from January 1 and December 31 2014, the country’s ministry of commerce (Mofcom) announced on Thursday July 23.
The probe follows an application lodged by Baosteel and Wuhan Iron & Steel (Wugang), two major producers of the steel product in China, on May 27 this year.
Materials involved are mainly used in transformers, large generators and other applications, and are classified under tariff codes 72251100 and 72261100.
“The dumped exports from Japan, South Korea and the EU caused material injury to the Chinese producers, as it weighed on China domestic prices of the product and dampened profit of steelmakers,” Mofcom said.
“The dumping activity from those countries has dealt a blow to the domestic market, as the GOES industry is already facing an overcapacity problem,” a Wugang official told Steel First. “The most serious effect of this is that our prices have been dragged down by the low-priced import, and we can barely make any profit for such a high-end product,”
The ministry will also start industrial damage investigation into GOES shipped from those countries during January 1 2011 to December 31 2014.
China has over 1.2 million tpy of GOES production capacity, while demand was about 900,000 tonnes, according to the Wugang source.
Wugang is the country’s largest GOES producer, with a capacity of about 600,000 tpy.
Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal (NSSM) and JFE Steel and South Korea’s Posco have not immediately replied to Steel First’s queries for comment on the anti-dumping probe, including questions about the share of China in their exports of grain-oriented electrical steel.