June 2 (Bloomberg) -- China’s first investigation into dumping of U.S. steel products may not increase trade frictions between the two countries as the volume affected is “too small,” Beijing-based Mysteel Research Institute said.

China last year imported 59,629 metric tons, or $273 million worth, of electrical steel from the U.S., according to Mysteel Research analyst Xu Xiangchun. The U.S. exported $2.4 billion worth of iron and steel products to China in 2008, according to the U.S. Office of Trade and Industry Information.

The Asian nation became a net crude-steel importer for the first time in three years in March as domestic demand outpaced overseas sales. The probe is the first against U.S. steel producers, the China Iron & Steel Association’s vice secretary general Wu Xinchun said.

“This case is unlikely to increase trade friction between the two countries as the volume is too small compared with the broader steel market,” Xu said.

Susan Stevenson, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, declined to comment on the probe. Calls to Richard Wilbur, deputy public affairs counselor at the U.S. mission to the United Nations in Geneva, weren’t immediately returned.

China started the investigation into grain oriented flat- rolled electrical steel imports, used in power transformers, from the U.S. and Russia, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. Authorities had received requests from Wuhan Iron & Steel Group and Baosteel Group Corp., the nation’s only two mills capable of making the products, the ministry said.

Fasteners Probe

China has conducted investigations or imposed anti-dumping duties on steel imports from other countries. It started a probe into imports of so-called iron or steel fasteners, used in automobiles and machinery, from the European Union on Dec. 1, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The investigation may be completed by Dec. 29 of this year, it said.

The country ended a five-year anti-dumping duty on cold- rolled coil shipments from Russia, South Korea, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Taiwan on Sept. 22.

“The latest move shows that China is not only the target for anti-dumping investigations,” said Xu. “It’s starting to use the tools to fight for its own interests.”

--Helen Yuan, Kevin Hamlin, William Bi. Editors: Richard Dobson, Simon Casey.