The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday slapped steep import duties on steel products from Vietnam that originated from Chinese-made steel.

The agency said the Vietnamese products were circumventing existing U.S. anti-dumping and anti-subsidy orders on the same products from China.

The Commerce Department said it would apply the same anti-dumping duties on corrosion-resistant steel from Vietnam using Chinese substrate of 199.43 per cent and anti-subsidy duties of 39.05 per cent.

U.S. anti-dumping duties on cold-rolled steel from Vietnam using Chinese steel substrate will be set at 265.79 per cent, with anti-subsidy duties of 265.44 per cent.