BEIJING, April 7 (Reuters) - China has decided to scrap anti-dumping duties imposed for a decade on cold-rolled stainless-steel sheets imported from Japan and South Korea, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Thursday.

The decision could help Japanese and Korean steelmakers like Nippon Steel and Sumikin Stainless Steel Corp (NSSC), Nisshin Steel and POSCO sell their products in the Chinese market.

China's foreign trade ministry, the former body of the commerce ministry, decided to impose the duties, which ranged from 17 percent to 58 percent, in late 2000 based on complaints from domestic steelmakers.

In 2006, the commerce ministry extended the measures for another five years.
Products from NSSC, Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co Ltd , and Nisshin Steel were subject to anti-dumping duties of 24 percent, 27 percent and 17 percent respectively, according to the website of China's customs administration.

The Commerce Ministry said in a notice on Thursday that it had received no application from any domestic individual or company to extend the measures. The duties will automatically expire on April 8.

China has expanded domestic production capacity of cold-rolled steel sheets over the last decade, but it still has to import high-end steel sheets to meet strong demand from automobile and home appliance manufacturers.

According to local industry data, China imported 640,000 tonnes of cold-rolled steel sheets in 2010, an increase of 18.5 percent from a year earlier.