BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Wednesday began to conduct an anti-dumping investigation over a kind of iron based alloy imported from the US and Japan.

The MOC will try to determine whether the imports, iron based amorphous alloy ribbon (strip), which were allegedly at "lower than normal" prices, have damaged or affected domestic producers' interests, the ministry said in a statement.

The investigation started on Nov 18, the statement said.

Iron based amorphous alloy ribbon is widely used in manufacturing power distribution transformer, electric reactor, motors and voltage transformers.