[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 140 (Tuesday, July 22, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42501-42503]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-17226]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[A-428-842, A-588-871, and A-455-804]
Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel From Germany, Japan, and Poland:
Final Determinations of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Certain Final
Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances
AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration,
Department of Commerce
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (the Department) determines that
grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) from Germany, Japan, and Poland
is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than
fair value (LTFV), as provided in section 735 of the Tariff Act of
1930, as amended (the Act). The period of investigation (POI) is July
1, 2012, through June 30, 2013. The final weighted-average dumping
margins of sales at LTFV are listed below in the ``Final
Determinations'' section of this notice.
DATES: July 22, 2014.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen Banea at (202) 482-0656
(Germany); Steve Bezirganian at (202) 482-1131 (Japan); or Alan Ray at
(202) 482-5403 (Poland); AD/CVD Operations, Enforcement and Compliance,
International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th
Street and Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On May 12, 2014, the Department published the preliminary
determinations of sales at LTFV of GOES from Germany, Japan, and
Poland.\1\ We invited, but did not receive, interested party comments
on the preliminary determinations in these investigations.
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\1\ See Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel from Germany, Japan,
Poland, and the Russian Federation: Preliminary Determinations of
Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Certain Affirmative Preliminary
Determinations of Critical Circumstances, and Postponement of
Russian Final Determination, 79 FR 26941 (May 12, 2014) (Preliminary
Determinations).
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In May and June 2014, the mandatory respondents in the
investigations from Germany and Japan requested that the Department
postpone the final determinations in those cases, pursuant to section
735(a)(2)(A) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.210(e)(1). These companies also
requested that the Department extend provisional measures from a four-
month period to not more than six months, in accordance with section
733(d) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.210(e)(2). Subsequently, the
petitioners and a domestic interested party \2\ submitted letters
jointly opposing these requests.\3\
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\2\ The petitioners are AK Steel Corporation, Allegheny Ludlum,
LLC, and the United Steelworkers. The domestic interested party is
the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and
Agricultural Implemental Workers of America (UAW). Collectively,
these parties are referred to as ``the domestic industry.''
\3\ For further discussion of this issue, see the ``Requests to
Postpone the Final Determinations for Germany and Japan'' section of
this notice.
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Scope of the Investigations
The scope of the investigations covers GOES, which is a flat-rolled
alloy steel product containing by weight specific levels of silicon,
carbon, and aluminum. For a complete description of the scope of the
investigations, see Appendix I to this notice.
Verification
The Department did not verify any of the mandatory respondents in
these investigations because none of the mandatory respondents
participated in the investigations prior to the issuance of the
preliminary determinations.
Requests To Postpone the Final Determinations for Germany and Japan
On May 14 and May 19, 2014, respectively, the Department received
requests to postpone the final determinations from the mandatory
respondents in the Japan investigation (i.e., Nippon Steel & Sumitomo
Metal Corporation (NSSMC) and JFE Steel Corporation (JFE)) and the
mandatory respondent in the German investigation (i.e., ThyssenKrupp
Electrical Steel GmbH (TKES)). On May 19, 2014, the
[[Page 42502]]
domestic industry objected to all three requests, arguing that there
are compelling reasons to deny them. Specifically, the domestic
industry contends that postponements would be inappropriate in these
cases because: (1) The mandatory respondents failed to participate in
these investigations and, thus, there is nothing to be gained from
these non-cooperative companies in terms of argument or additional
factual information; (2) unlike past investigations in which the
Department postponed final determinations, the petitioners and other
members of the domestic industry objected to the postponements, thus
providing a compelling reason not to extend; and (3) postponing the
deadlines would require the Department to prepare multiple final
determinations (i.e., one for Poland in July and then two others for
Germany and Japan in September).
On May 20 and 21, 2014, respectively, JFE and NSSMC responded to
the objections of the domestic industry, stating that: (1) There is no
requirement under the statute or the regulations that a respondent may
request a postponement of the final only if it participated in the
investigation; (2) the Department's workload would be essentially
unaffected by a postponement; and (3) the Department has recently
postponed its final determinations under similar circumstances.\4\ TKES
did not respond to the domestic industry's arguments.
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\4\ See Welded Stainless Pressure Pipe from Malaysia:
Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value,
Affirmative Preliminary Determination of Critical Circumstances, in
Part, and Postponement of Final Determination, 79 FR 808, 809-10
(January 7, 2014) (Stainless Pipe from Malaysia).
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On May 28, 2014, the domestic industry responded to JFE's and
NSSMC's submissions, stating that respondents' failure to respond to
the Department's information requests impeded the proceeding, and when
the Department has postponed final determinations in the past, there
either had been no objection from the petitioners or the petitioners
had requested the postponement. Thus, the domestic industry contends
that the precedent cited by JFE and NSSMC is not applicable.
On June 2, 2014, NSSMC replied to the domestic industry's May 28
submission, noting that the domestic industry had identified only one
instance where a request for postponement was denied.\5\ According to
NSSMC, that case was not factually similar because, unlike these
investigations, the Department had identified a ``record of misleading
and contradictory responses.'' \6\ Furthermore, NSSMC noted that the
domestic industry cited no statute, regulation, or precedent indicating
that a petitioner's position on a postponement request is relevant.
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\5\ See Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair
Value: Certain Stainless Steel Wire Rods From India, 58 FR 41729,
41731 (August 5, 1993) (Steel Wire Rod From India).
\6\ Id.
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Section 735(a)(2)(A) of the Act provides that a final determination
may be postponed until not later than 135 days after the date of the
publication of the preliminary determination if, in the event of an
affirmative preliminary determination, a request for such postponement
is made by exporters who account for a significant proportion of
exports of the subject merchandise. Further, 19 CFR 351.210(e)(2)
requires that requests by respondents for postponement of a final
determination be accompanied by a request for extension of provisional
measures from a four-month period to not more than six months.
After considering all submissions on this issue, the Department has
determined that additional time is not required to complete these final
determinations, given that: (1) No interested parties have submitted
case briefs or otherwise commented on our preliminary determinations;
(2) the Department will avoid expenditure of further administrative
resources by completing the Germany and Japan investigations at the
same time as the Poland investigation, in which no exporter requested a
postponement of the final determination; (3) the domestic industry,
including the petitioners, object to postponing these final
determinations, unlike the circumstances in Stainless Pipe from
Malaysia; and, (4) section 735(a)(2) of the Act and the Department's
regulations at 19 CFR 351.210(e)(1) provide that the Department may
postpone a final determination, but do not require us to do so upon
request. Therefore, we have exercised our discretion under the Act and
are not postponing the final determinations.
Final Determinations
We made no changes to our preliminary determinations in the
Germany, Japan, and Poland investigations. Therefore, we continue to
determine that the following margins exist for the following entities
for the POI:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dumping
Manufacturer/ exporter margin
(percent)
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Germany
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ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel GmbH.......................... 241.91
All Others.................................................. 133.70
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Japan
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JFE Steel Corporation....................................... 172.30
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation................... 172.30
All Others.................................................. 93.36
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Poland
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Stalprodukt S.A............................................. 99.51
All Others.................................................. 78.10
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Certain Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances
We made no changes to our critical circumstances analysis for
Poland announced in the Preliminary Determinations and described in
``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Determination of the
Antidumping Duty Investigation of Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel from
Poland,'' which is hereby adopted by this notice. Thus, pursuant to
735(a)(3) of the Act, we continue to find that critical circumstances
exist with respect to imports of GOES from Poland from Stalprodukt S.A.
and the companies covered by the ``all others'' rate.
Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation
In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, the Department
will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue to
suspend liquidation of all appropriate entries of GOES from Germany and
Japan as described in the ``Scope of the Investigations'' section of
this notice, which were entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for
consumption on or after May 12, 2014, the date of publication of the
preliminary determinations of those investigations in the Federal
Register.
With respect to entries of GOES from Poland, in accordance with
section 735(c)(4)(A) of the Act, the Department will instruct CBP to
continue to suspend liquidation of all entries from Stalprodukt S.A.
and the companies covered by the ``all others'' rate that were entered,
or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after February 11,
2014, which is ninety days prior to the publication of the preliminary
determination of that investigation in the Federal Register.
Further, the Department will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit
equal to
[[Page 42503]]
the weighted-average amount by which normal value exceeds U.S. price as
follows: (1) for the mandatory respondents listed in the table above,
the cash deposit rate will be equal to the dumping margin which the
Department determined in these final determinations; (2) if the
exporter is not a mandatory respondent identified in these
investigations, but the producer is, the cash deposit rate will be the
rate established for the producer of the subject merchandise; and (3)
the cash deposit rates for all other producers or exporters will be
133.70 percent for entries from Germany, 93.36 percent for entries from
Japan, and 78.10 percent for entries from Poland. The suspension of
liquidation instructions will remain in effect until further notice.
International Trade Commission Notification
In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we will notify the
ITC of the final affirmative determinations of sales at LTFV. Because
the final determinations in these proceedings are affirmative, in
accordance with section 735(b)(2) of the Act, the ITC will make its
final determination as to whether the domestic industry in the United
States is materially injured, or threatened with material injury, by
reason of imports of GOES from Germany, Japan, and Poland no later than
45 days after our final determinations. If the ITC determines that
material injury or threat of material injury does not exist for any
country, the associated proceeding will be terminated and all
securities posted will be refunded. If the ITC determines that such
injury does exist for any country, the Department will issue an
antidumping duty order for that country directing CBP to assess, upon
further instruction by the Department, antidumping duties on all
imports of the subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from
warehouse, for consumption on or after the effective date of the
suspension of liquidation.
Notification Regarding Administrative Protective Orders
This notice serves as a 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 notification of the
return or 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.
These determinations and this notice are issued and published
pursuant to sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act.
Dated: July 16, 2014.
Paul Piquado,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.
Appendix I--Scope of the Investigations
The scope of these investigations covers grain-oriented silicon
electrical steel (GOES). GOES is a flat-rolled alloy steel product
containing by weight at least 0.6 percent but not more than 6
percent of silicon, not more than 0.08 percent of carbon, not more
than 1.0 percent of aluminum, and no other element in an amount that
would give the steel the characteristics of another alloy steel, in
coils or in straight lengths. The GOES that is subject to these
investigations is currently classifiable under subheadings
7225.11.0000, 7226.11.1000, 7226.11.9030, and 7226.11.9060 of the
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Although
the HTSUS subheadings are provided for convenience and customs
purposes, the written description of the scope of these
investigations is dispositive. Excluded are flat-rolled products not
in coils that, prior to importation into the United States, have
been cut to a shape and undergone all punching, coating, or other
operations necessary for classification in Chapter 85 of the HTSUS
as a transformer part (i.e., laminations).
[FR Doc. 2014-17226 Filed 7-21-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P