(Updates with details of the trade case, paragraphs 3-8)
WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it has set preliminary anti-dumping duties of up to 145.18 percent on steel grating imported from China to offset unfairly low prices.
The United States imported about $91 million worth of the product from China in 2008. Steel grating is used in industrial floors, docks, ramps, drainage covers, staircases and other applications.
The trade case is one of about a dozen brought by U.S. companies in 2009 against Chinese-made goods that they said have benefited from government subsidies or are being sold in the United States at less than fair value.
The Commerce Department said it set a preliminary anti-dumping duty of 14.36 percent on four Chinese producers or exporters in the steel grating investigations.
Those firms were Ningbo Jiulong Machinery Manufacturing Co Ltd, Sinosteel Yantai Steel Grating Co Ltd, Ningbo Haitian International Co Ltd/Ningbo Lihong Steel Grating Co Ltd and Yantai Xinke Steel Structure Co Ltd.
All other Chinese exporters or producers received an anti-dumping duty rate of 145.18 percent, the Commerce Department said.
The decision is a victory for two U.S. companies who filed a case in May asking for import protection. Those were Alabama Metal Industries Corp and Fisher & Ludlow, which has U.S. production facilities in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
The U.S. International Trade Commission is set to vote on Wednesday in a case in which U.S. companies are seeking duties on imports of oil well pipe from China that totaled more than $2.6 billion in 2008.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Will Dunham)