On September 4 ,1998, a petition was filed with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) by Tung-Ho Steel Enterprise Corporation, Alleging that an industry in Taiwan is materially injured and threatened with material injury by reason of dumping of H-beam from Japan. Accordingly , effective November 16,1998, the MOF initiated antidumping investigation and requested the International Trade Commission (ITC) of Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to proceed with the preliminary injury investigation.

In response to the MOF request, effective November 19,1998, the ITC instituted the preliminary injury investigation.
The ITC organized an investigation team to investigate this case as soon as it instituted the investigation. In addition to the ITC staff, the investigation team consists of experts from various government departments such as the Directorate General of Customs of MOF , the Materials Research Laboratories of ITRI, the Industrial Development Bureau of MOEA, and the Board of Foreign Trade of MOEA .The ITC Commissioner Chang-Fa Lo is in charge of this investigation and on November 26,1998, he convened and chaired the first staff meeting to discuss some of the material issues and the detail scheduling of this investigation.

It is decided during the staff meeting that an on-site investigation is scheduled on December 3,1998, and an staff conference is scheduled on December 7,1998. The ITC hopes that the preliminary injury investigation will be completed by the end of December 1998, and the determination of the investigation results will be forwarded to MOF before January 3,1999.