HANOI - Vietnam's industry ministry has launched an investigation that could lead to anti-dumping duties on wind towers originally from China, following a complaint by domestic producers, the government said on Saturday.

Producers in Vietnam have claimed that dumping of Chinese-origin towers has caused "significant damage" to them, the government said in a statement, without elaborating.

"In case of necessity, based on preliminary investigation results, the trade ministry can apply temporary anti-dumping measures to prevent dumping activities that hurt domestic manufacturing," the statement added.

The government gave no timeline for completing the investigation.

Neither Vietnamese customs nor the statistics office provide data on wind tower imports.

According to the trade ministry, local producers were proposing an anti-dumping tax rate of 97%.

Wind towers imported to Vietnam currently enjoy a most-favored nation (MFN) tariff of 3%.

Vietnam is looking to boost wind energy as it begins the transition to becoming carbon-neutral by mid-century, aiming for wind, most of it onshore, to account for 18.5% of the total power mix by 2030.

The Chinese embassy in Hanoi did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of business hours.

(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Sonali Paul)