The Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) said it had opened an anti-dumping investigation into US steel imports, the Wall Street Journal reported. The announcement came after seven US steelmakers and the United Steelworkers Union brought an anti-dumping suit against China in April. MofCom said the new case would determine whether US and Russian firms had sold a specialized kind of flat-rolled steel used in electrical transformers below market value. Wuhan Iron and Steel and Baoshan Iron and Steel said American firms AK Steel Holding and Allegheny Technologies, and unnamed Russian firms, had put Chinese firms at a competitive disadvantage in the Chinese market. Analysts suggested the timing of the announcement was intended to coincide with the visit to Beijing of US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.