China’s Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom) said on September 8 that it will start an anti-dumping investigation into the country’s imports of high-performance stainless steel seamless tube from Europe and Japan.

The investigation is being launched in response to a petition submitted by Chinese stainless pipe producers Jiangsu Wujin Stainless Pipe & Tube and Changshu Walsin Specialty Steel. This was later supported by Baosteel Stainless, Zhejiang Jiuli Hi-Tech Metals and Jiangsu Yinhuan Precision Steel Tube.

The combined output of these five companies has amounted to more than 50% of China’s high-performance stainless steel seamless pipe production over the past three years, according to Mofcom.

The anti-dumping investigation will look into imports between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. Mofcom will also investigate import data from January 1, 2008 to June 6, 2011, to estimate the damage such imports might have had on the domestic industry.

The products involved are stainless seamless boiler tubes used in supercritical power generation plants. The tubes have carbon content higher than 0.04%, chrome content higher than 16%, nickel content higher than 7% and niobium content higher than 0.2%, and are identified by the custom numbers 73044110, 73044910, 73045110 and 73045910.

Mofcom’s statement says that European and Japanese companies involved in providing the imports can provide feedback “within 20 days” – by September 28 – giving details of their imports into China for the year in question.

The investigation is scheduled to end before September 8, 2012, but could extend to March 8, 2013, if necessary.

According to Chinese customs data, the country imported 4,196 tonnes of stainless seamless boiler tubes in first seven months of 2011, up from 1,020 tonnes in the corresponding period of 2010.