China's Ministry of Commerce started on Monday an anti-dumping investigation into carbon steel fasteners imported from the European Union (EU), the country's latest response to the latter's proposed high anti-dumping duties on Chinese fastener exports.

An application for a probe was filed on December 1 by the fastener branch of the China General Machine Components Industry Association (CMCA) on behalf of Chinese fastener producers, the ministry said on Monday in a statement.

The move came after the European Commission voted to adopt anti-dumping duties of 63 to 87 percent on China-made fasteners over the next five years on December 1. The vote must be approved by trade ministers of the 27-nation bloc within a month or it will not come into force.

EU trade experts have complained that an increase of Chinese fastener imports hurt the European manufacturers. Chinese exporters rebutted the accusation, saying the profitability of the European manufacturers increased 110 percent in the period between 2003 and 2007.

The EU accounted for about a third of China's total fastener exports. It imported around 575 million euros (US$805 million) of fasteners from China in 2007, according to Zhang Feng, a fastener guild official at the Jiaxing City of east China's Zhejiang Province.

Meanwhile, China's annual fastener imports from the EU totaled US$180 million, said Feng Jinyao, director of the CMCA's fastener industry association.

Most EU-exported fasteners were used on high-end products such as vehicles and electrical appliances, while a large increase in supply and price cuts by the EU producers had squeezed China-made fasteners and forced them to low-end markets, said Feng.

The anti-dumping probe would involve carbon steel fasteners used in making products like cars, electronic and electrical equipment and machinery, said the ministry.

The investigation would normally be finished with in a year, but could take until June 29, 2010, the ministry said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2008)