CHINA'S Ministry of Commerce said yesterday that it will impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imported solar-grade polysilicon from the United States and South Korea.

Starting next Wednesday, Chinese importers of solar-grade polysilicon from the US will be required to pay deposit rates with Chinese customs ranging from 53.3 percent to 57 percent, depending on the dumping margin, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Importers from South Korea will have to pay deposit rates ranging from 2.4 percent to 48.7 percent, according to the statement.

"After preliminary investigations, we found exporters in the United States and the ROK dumped their products on the Chinese market and caused material harm to China's domestic solar industry," the ministry said.

Last October, the US government imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China.

The US commerce department said Chinese producers and exporters sold solar cells in the US market at dumping margins ranging from 18.32 percent to 249.96 percent, and they received countervailing subsidies of 14.78 percent to 15.97 percent from the government. Solar-grade polysilicon is an important material for making solar cells.