* Commerce Department barred from imposing final duties
* Big disappointment for a group of U.S. companies (Adds detail, background)
WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - A U.S. trade panel on Thursday turned down an industry request to slap duties on hundreds of millions of dollars of a steel product from China.
The rare "no" vote by the U.S. International Trade Commission bars the Commerce Department from imposing final duties of up to 437 percent on Chinese-made "wire decking" used in storage rack systems and other applications.
The ITC voted 4-2 that U.S. producers were "neither materially injured nor threatened with material injury" because of the imports from China.
The decision is a big disappointment for U.S. companies that filed a petition 13 months ago accusing Chinese producers of selling in the United States at unfairly low prices and benefiting from government subsidies.
Those companies were AWP Industries Inc of Kentucky, ITC Manufacturing Inc of Arizona, J&L Wire Cloth Inc of Minnesota, Nashville Wire Products Co of Tennessee and Wireway Husky Corporation of North Carolina.
Last month the Commerce Department announced final anti-dumping duties in the case ranging from 14.24 percent to 143 percent and final countervailing duties ranging from 1.52 percent to 437.11 percent.
The ITC can block duties if it determines U.S. producers have not been materially injured or threatened with material injury by the imports.
The Commerce Department broadly estimated wire decking imports from China at $235.9 million in 2009, down from $316.9 million in 2008.
But it noted those figures included some metal furniture parts not covered by the wire decking case. (Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Xavier Briand)