[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 235 (Thursday, December 6, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72820-72824]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-29537]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[A-821-809]
Hot-Rolled Flat-Rolled Carbon-Quality Steel Products From the
Russian Federation; 2010-2011; Final Results of Administrative Review
and Revision of Agreement Suspending Antidumping Duty Investigation
AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration,
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: On June 1, 2012, the Department of Commerce (``the
Department'') published its preliminary results of administrative
review of the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Duty Investigation
on Certain Hot-Rolled Flat-Rolled Carbon-Quality Steel Products from
the Russian Federation (``the Agreement'') for the period July 1, 2010
through June 30, 2011. See Hot-Rolled Flat-Rolled
[[Page 72821]]
Carbon-Quality Steel Products From the Russian Federation; Preliminary
Results of the Administrative Review of the Suspension Agreement, 77 FR
32513 (June 1, 2012) (``Preliminary Results''). In its Preliminary
Results, the Department determined that, although the Government of the
Russian Federation was in compliance with the Agreement, the
Department's evaluation with respect to the status of the Agreement
indicated that the Agreement was not meeting its statutory requirement
to prevent price undercutting of domestic hot-rolled steel prices. On
November 14 and 15, 2012, respectively, the Department and the Ministry
of Economic Development of the Russian Federation (``The Economy
Ministry of Russia'') initialed a draft revision to the Agreement which
realigns the reference prices issued pursuant to the Agreement with
current U.S. market prices. The Department requested, and received on
November 23, 2012, comments from interested parties on the initialed
draft revision. On November 30, 2012, the Department and The Economy
Ministry of Russia signed the final revision to the Agreement. The
revision to the Agreement reestablishes the effectiveness of the
reference price mechanism and, thus, brings the revised Agreement into
compliance with the statutory requirement to prevent the undercutting
of domestic price levels by imports of Russian hot-rolled steel.
DATES: Effective Date: November 30, 2012.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sally C. Gannon or Anne D'Alauro,
Import Administration, International Trade Administration, U.S.
Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20230, telephone: (202) 482-0162 or (202) 482-4830.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
In response to a request from Nucor Corporation (``Nucor''), a
domestic interested party, the Department conducted an administrative
review of the Agreement, and, on June 1, 2012, the Preliminary Results
were published in the Federal Register. Section 751(a)(1)(C) of the Act
specifies that, in an administrative review of a suspension agreement,
the Department shall ``review the current status of, and compliance
with, any agreement by reason of which an investigation was
suspended.'' In this case, the Department reviewed the current status
of, and compliance with, the Agreement, which was signed by the
Department and the Ministry of Trade of the Russian Federation on July
12, 1999, and suspended the antidumping duty investigation. Because the
Department determined that the Russian Federation was a non-market
economy country at that time, the Agreement was entered into under
section 734(l) of the Act, which applies to non-market economy
countries.\1\ This section provides that the Department may suspend an
investigation upon acceptance of an agreement with a non-market economy
country to restrict the volume of imports into the United States, if
the Department determines that the agreement is in the public interest;
that effective monitoring is possible; and that the agreement ``will
prevent the suppression or undercutting of price levels of domestic
products by imports of the merchandise under investigation.'' Section
734(l)(1). For this purpose, the Agreement's terms established annual
quota limits and a reference price mechanism to provide minimum prices
for sales of Russian hot-rolled steel imports into the U.S. market. The
reference price mechanism in the Agreement relied on quarterly
adjustments, based on the average unit prices of fairly-traded imports
as reported by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as specified under
Section III.E of the Agreement.
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\1\ In a memorandum dated June 6, 2002, based on the evidence of
Russian economic reforms to that date, the Department revoked
Russia's status as a non-market-economy country under section
771(18)(B) of the Act, with such revocation effective as of April 1,
2002.
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In evaluating the information on the record of the administrative
review with respect to the current status of, and compliance with, the
Agreement, the Department preliminarily determined that the Agreement's
reference price mechanism, in its current form, was no longer
preventing price undercutting by Russian imports of hot-rolled steel
into the U.S. market, and, as a result, preliminarily determined that
the Agreement was no longer fulfilling its statutory requirement. See
Preliminary Results, 77 FR at 32516. The Department preliminarily
determined that the record evidence indicated that the adjustments made
quarterly within the Agreement's existing reference price mechanism
failed to keep pace with changes in U.S. market prices. Further, once
the reference prices became too low relative to U.S. market prices, the
subsequent quarterly adjustments were no longer effective in providing
new reference prices that were reflective of U.S. market prices for
hot-rolled steel. In addition, the Department preliminarily determined
that the record evidence indicated that the failing reference price
mechanism, as described, had led to the undercutting of domestic hot-
rolled steel price levels by Russian hot-rolled steel imports during
the period of review (``POR''). As a separate matter, in its
preliminary results, the Department found no evidence, in the
information submitted by interested parties in the administrative
review, that the Agreement had been violated during the POR.
After the publication of the Preliminary Results, the Department
offered interested parties an opportunity to place additional factual
information on the record of this administrative review. The Russian
producers Joint Stock Company Severstal (``Severstal''), Novolipetsk
Steel, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, and OJSC ``OMK-Steel''
(collectively, ``the Russian producers''), and Nucor placed factual
information on the record on July 5, 2012. Severstal and the domestic
producers Nucor, ArcelorMittal USA LLC, United States Steel
Corporation, Gallatin Steel Company, Steel Dynamics, Inc., and SSAB
N.A.D., Inc. (collectively, ``the domestic producers''), placed
rebuttal factual information on the record on July 16, 2012. The
Economy Ministry of Russia, the Russian producers and the domestic
producers submitted case and rebuttal briefs in response to the
Preliminary Results on July 23, 2012, and August 1, 2012, respectively.
On September 21, 2012, the Department extended the deadline for the
final results of review from October 1, 2012, until November 28, 2012.
See Memorandum to Lynn Fischer Fox, Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Policy and Negotiations in Import Administration, regarding ``Extension
of Deadline for Final Results of Administrative Review of the
Suspension Agreement'' (September 21, 2012). The Department
subsequently exercised its discretion to toll deadlines for the
duration of the closure of the Federal Government from October 29,
2012, through October 30, 2012. Thus, all deadlines in this segment of
the proceeding have been extended by two days. The revised deadline for
the final results of this review is now November 30, 2012. See
Memorandum to the Record from Paul Piquado, Assistant Secretary for
Import Administration, regarding ``Tolling of Administrative Deadlines
As a Result of the Government Closure during the Recent Hurricane''
(October 31, 2012).
On January 31, 2012, the Department requested consultations with
The Economy Ministry of Russia, under Section VIII.C of the Agreement,
to
[[Page 72822]]
discuss the issues of the alleged sales of Russian hot-rolled steel
imports at prices that called into question the effectiveness of the
Agreement's reference price mechanism and whether or not the Agreement
was fulfilling its statutory mandate to prevent the undercutting and
suppression of domestic hot-rolled steel prices. On February 23, 2012,
and September 26-27, 2012, the Department and The Economy Ministry of
Russia held consultations in Washington, DC, and on June 1, 2012, in
Paris, France, to discuss these issues. The Department and The Economy
Ministry of Russia exchanged several written proposals in an attempt to
resolve these concerns and to bring the Agreement into alignment with
its statutory requirement to prevent the undercutting of domestic price
levels for hot-rolled steel.
On November 14 and 15, 2012, respectively, the Department and The
Economy Ministry of Russia initialed a draft revision to the Agreement
in which the parties agreed to updated reference prices for the fourth
quarter of the 2012 Export Limit Period, based on current domestic
prices published by the industry publication SteelBenchmarker, as well
as a modification to the quarterly adjustment mechanism for making
future quarterly reference price adjustments. On November 15, 2012, the
Department released to interested parties the initialed draft revision
to the Agreement and requested that comments be submitted to the
Department by November 23, 2012. See Memorandum to All Interested
Parties from Sally C. Gannon Re ``Draft Revision to the Agreement
Suspending the Antidumping Investigation on Certain Hot-Rolled Flat-
Rolled Carbon-Quality Steel Products from the Russian Federation;
Request for Comments'' (November 15, 2012). The initialed draft
revision and request for comments were also published in the Federal
Register on November 23, 2012. See Initialed Draft Revision to the
Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Investigation on Certain Hot-
Rolled Flat-Rolled Carbon Quality Steel Products from the Russian
Federation; Request for Comment, 77 FR 70142 (November 23, 2012). The
Department received timely comments on the draft revision from The
Economy Ministry of Russia, the Russian producers, and the domestic
producers. The Department has considered, and responded to, all
relevant comments concerning the revised Agreement in the Issues and
Decision Memorandum (``Decision Memorandum'') accompanying this notice.
The revised Agreement is effective on November 30, 2012, the date of
the signing of the revised Agreement.
Scope of Agreement
The merchandise subject to the Agreement is certain hot-rolled
flat-rolled carbon-quality steel products. The covered merchandise is
classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
(``HTSUS'') at subheadings: 7208.10.15.00, 7208.10.30.00,
7208.10.60.00, 7208.25.30.00, 7208.25.60.00, 7208.26.00.30,
7208.26.00.60, 7208.27.00.30, 7208.27.00.60, 7208.36.00.30,
7208.36.00.60, 7208.37.00.30, 7208.37.00.60, 7208.38.00.15,
7208.38.00.30, 7208.38.00.90, 7208.39.00.15, 7208.39.00.30,
7208.39.00.90, 7208.40.60.30, 7208.40.60.60, 7208.53.00.00,
7208.54.00.00, 7208.90.00.00, 7210.70.30.00, 7210.90.90.00,
7211.14.00.30, 7211.14.00.90, 7211.19.15.00, 7211.19.20.00,
7211.19.30.00, 7211.19.45.00, 7211.19.60.00, 7211.19.75.30,
7211.19.75.60, 7211.19.75.90, 7212.40.10.00, 7212.40.50.00,
7212.50.00.00. Certain hot-rolled flat-rolled carbon-quality steel
covered include: Vacuum degassed, fully stabilized; high strength low
alloy; and the substrate for motor lamination steel may also enter
under the following tariff numbers: 7225.11.00.00, 7225.19.00.00,
7225.30.30.50, 7225.30.70.00, 7225.40.70.00, 7225.99.00.90,
7226.11.10.00, 7226.11.90.30, 7226.11.90.60, 7226.19.10.00,
7226.19.90.00, 7226.91.50.00, 7226.91.70.00, 7226.91.80.00, and
7226.99.01.80. Although the HTSUS subheadings are provided for
convenience and Customs purposes, the written description of the
covered merchandise is dispositive.
See the accompanying Decision Memorandum for the full description
of merchandise covered by the Agreement.
Period of Review
The POR is July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.
Final Results of Administrative Review
As noted above, in its Preliminary Results, the Department
evaluated the information on the record of the administrative review
with respect to the current status of, and compliance with, the
Agreement and preliminarily determined that the Agreement's reference
price mechanism was no longer preventing price undercutting by Russian
imports of hot-rolled steel into the U.S. market, and, as a result,
that the Agreement was no longer fulfilling its statutory requirement.
The Department indicated in its Preliminary Results that, on February
23, 2012, it had entered into consultations with The Economy Ministry
of Russia to discuss the issues of the alleged sales of Russian hot-
rolled steel imports at prices that called into question the
effectiveness of the Agreement's reference price mechanism and whether
the Agreement was fulfilling its statutory mandate to prevent the
undercutting and suppression of domestic hot-rolled steel prices. The
Department further indicated that it intended to move forward with
additional consultations with The Economy Ministry of Russia during the
course of the administrative review period, as mutually agreed, in an
attempt to resolve these concerns and to bring the Agreement back into
alignment with its statutory requirement to prevent price undercutting.
See Preliminary Results, 77 FR at 32516.
Pursuant to the government-to-government negotiations that took
place during the course of the administrative review, including direct
consultations in February, June and September of 2012, the Department
and The Economy Ministry of Russia reached an agreement on a revised
Agreement that would meet the statutory requirement of preventing the
undercutting of domestic prices of hot-rolled steel. The Department and
The Economy Ministry of Russia signed the revision to the Agreement on
November 30, 2012, the same day these final results were issued. As
described above, the revised Agreement provides updated reference
prices for the fourth quarter of the 2012 Export Limit Period, based on
current domestic prices published by the industry publication
SteelBenchmarker, and modifies the quarterly adjustment mechanism for
updating the reference prices going forward. The use of a published
source for current U.S. market pricing of hot-rolled steel to update
the reference prices, and the modifications to the quarterly adjustment
mechanism going forward, ensure that the revised Agreement complies
with the statutory requirements, pursuant to section 734(l) of the Act.
For a detailed discussion of the relevant comments received from
interested parties, and the Department's response to those comments,
see the Decision Memorandum. Because the Department has determined that
the revised Agreement, which has been signed by the Department and The
Economy Ministry of Russia, is in compliance with the requirements of
section 734 of the Act, the Department
[[Page 72823]]
finds that the interested parties' comments concerning the original,
unrevised Agreement are moot. In addition, because we have not reached
a final determination with respect to the original, unrevised
Agreement, the provisions of 19 CFR 351.209(c) with respect to
suspension of liquidation do not apply.
This notice serves as the only reminder to parties subject to
administrative protective order (APO) of their responsibility
concerning the disposition of proprietary information disclosed under
APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3). Timely written
notification of return/destruction of APO materials or conversion to
judicial protective order is hereby requested. Failure to comply with
the regulations and the terms of an APO is a sanctionable violation.
We are issuing and publishing this notice in accordance with
sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act.
The text of the signed revision to the Agreement follows in Annex 1
to this notice.
Dated: November 30, 2012.
Ronald K. Lorentzen,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
Annex 1
REVISION TO THE AGREEMENT SUSPENDING THE ANTIDUMPING INVESTIGATION ON
CERTAIN HOT-ROLLED FLAT-ROLLED CARBON-QUALITY STEEL PRODUCTS FROM THE
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
The Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Investigation on Certain
Hot-Rolled Flat-Rolled Carbon-Quality Steel Products from the Russian
Federation (``Agreement''), signed by the United States Department of
Commerce and the Ministry of Trade of the Russian Federation on July
12, 1999, is revised as set forth below. Consistent with Section XI.C
of the Agreement governing ``Other Provisions,'' the English and
Russian language versions of this revision shall be authentic, with the
English version being controlling.
If a provision of the Agreement conflicts with a provision of this
revision, the provision of the revision shall supersede the provision
of the Agreement to the extent of the conflict. All other provisions of
the Agreement and their applicability continue with full force. The
Agreement and the present revision to the Agreement are applied without
prejudice to either party's rights under the WTO.
The United States Department of Commerce (``DOC'') and Ministry of
Economic Development of the Russian Federation (``The Economy Ministry
of Russia'') hereby agree as follows:
Section III.C is revised, as follows:
III.C. The Reference Prices for the fourth quarter of the 2012
Export Limit Period, corresponding to October 1, 2012 through December
31, 2012, shall be updated by using the following procedure:
1. To update the Reference Price for Group One products, DOC shall
average FOB U.S. mill (East of the Mississippi) prices for hot-rolled
band (``HRB'') from the public source SteelBenchmarker for the two
months, September and October 2012, resulting in $684 per metric
ton.\2\
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\2\ Group One corresponds to the original grades in the
reference price calculation under Section III.C of the Agreement,
including modifications to that grade grouping made pursuant to
administrative proceedings conducted over the course of the
administration of the Agreement. See http://ia.ita.doc.gov/reference-price/refprice-a821809.html for the October 1, 2004-
December 31, 2004 quarter.
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2. DOC shall decrease the two-month average price resulting from
Section III.C.1 by two percent to account for the percentage difference
between the average SteelBenchmarker price and the average unit value
of fairly-traded imports for the July 2010 through July 2012 period,
resulting in $670.32 per metric ton.
3. DOC shall adjust the price resulting from Section III.C.2 for
freight and transportation expenses, using the following methodology.
DOC shall calculate the freight and transportation expenses using
publicly-available import statistics from the U.S. Bureau of the Census
(from the International Trade Commission's Dataweb) for January-June
2012. Based on the difference between the CIF values of Russian hot-
rolled steel imports relative to the Customs values for the same
entries during this period, DOC shall calculate the percentage ratio to
be used as a deduction for freight and transportation expenses. DOC
shall then subtract the resulting percentage amount of 10.23 percent
from the price calculated in Step 2 above to determine the updated
Reference Price of $601.75 per metric ton for Group One products for
the October 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012, quarterly period.
4. DOC shall calculate the Reference Prices for products in Groups
Two and Three for the October 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012,
quarterly period based on a 10 and 28 percent increase, respectively,
to the Reference Price calculated for Group One, as set forth above.\3\
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\3\ Groups Two (including modifications) and Three were added to
the reference price calculation, in accordance with Section III.D of
the Agreement, and as a result of administrative proceedings
conducted over the course of the administration of the Agreement.
See http://ia.ita.doc.gov/reference-price/refprice-a821809.html for
the October 1, 2005-December 31, 2005 quarter.
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5. The resulting updated Reference Prices for the fourth quarter of
the 2012 Export Limit Period, corresponding to October 1, 2012 through
December 31, 2012, and effective as of the date of the signing of this
revision to the Agreement, are as follows:
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Q4 2012
Group reference price
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One--Commercial and Structural Quality
A36, A1011-CS.................................... $601.75
A1011-SS--Grades 30, 33, 36, 40..................
A1018-SS--Grades 30, 33, 36, 40..................
API 5L Grades A & B..............................
Two--HSLA & HSLA-F Quality
Grades: A572, A1011-HSLAS............................ 661.92
A1018-HSLAS, A1011-HSLAS-F.......................
A1018-HSLAS-F....................................
API 5L Gr. X42, X46, X52, X56, X60...............
API 5CT Grades J55 and K55.......................
Three--High Grade Coils and Sheets for Pipes and
Casings
API 5L Gr. X65, X70, and X80..................... 770.24
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[[Page 72824]]
Section III.E is replaced with:
III.E. Thirty days before the start of each quarter of each Export
Limit Period (beginning with the first quarter, or January 1, 2013,
through March 31, 2013), DOC shall calculate the new quarterly
Reference Prices, based on the percentage increase or decrease in the
weighted-average unit import values for hot-rolled steel from all
countries not subject to antidumping duty orders or investigations over
the most recent three months for which data is available, compared to
the three preceding months. The source of the unit import values will
be publicly-available import statistics from the U.S. Bureau of the
Census (International Trade Commission's Dataweb). DOC will provide The
Economy Ministry of Russia with the worksheets supporting its
calculation of the quarterly Reference Prices at the time it provides
the Reference Prices to The Economy Ministry of Russia. For the first
calculation only, i.e., for the quarterly reference prices effective
for January 1, 2013, through March 31, 2013, the Department shall delay
issuance of the reference prices to The Economy Ministry of Russia
until the U.S. Bureau of the Census releases data for October 2012
which shall be incorporated into this calculation.
Signed in Washington, DC, on November 30, 2012.
For the United States Department of Commerce:
Ronald K. Lorentzen,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
For the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian
Federation:
Rinat M. Dosmukhamedov,
Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in the USA.
[FR Doc. 2012-29537 Filed 12-5-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P