Certain Corrosion-Resistant Steel Products From the People's Republic of China: Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, and Final Affirmative Critical Circumstances Determination, in Part, 35316-35319 [2016-12965]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
• International Trade Administration

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 106 (Thursday, June 2, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35316-35319]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-12965]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-026]


Certain Corrosion-Resistant Steel Products From the People's 
Republic of China: Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair 
Value, and Final Affirmative Critical Circumstances Determination, in 
Part

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (the Department) determines that 
imports of certain corrosion-resistant steel products (corrosion-
resistant steel) from the People's Republic of China (PRC) are being 
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 
final weighted-average dumping margins of sales at LTFV are listed in 
the ``Final Determination Margins'' section of this notice. The period 
of investigation is October 1, 2014, through March 31, 2015.

DATED: Effective Date: June 2, 2016.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nancy Decker or Andrew Huston, AD/CVD 
Operations, Office VII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone (202) 482-0196 
or (202) 482-4261, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    The Department published the Preliminary Determination on January 
4,

[[Page 35317]]

2016.\1\ A summary of the events that occurred since the Department 
published the Preliminary Determination, as well as a full discussion 
of the issues raised by parties for this final determination, may be 
found in the Final Decision Memorandum.\2\ The Final Decision 
Memorandum is a public document and is on file electronically via 
Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS). ACCESS is available to 
registered users at https://access.trade.gov, and is available to all 
parties in the Central Records Unit, Room B8024 of the main Department 
of Commerce building. In addition, a complete version of the Final 
Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at https://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/. The signed Final Decision Memorandum and 
the electronic version are identical in content.
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    \1\ See Certain Corrosion-Resistant Steel Products From the 
People's Republic of China: Affirmative Preliminary Determination of 
Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Postponement of Final 
Determination, 81 FR 75 (January 4, 2016) (Preliminary 
Determination) and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
    \2\ See Memorandum from Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, to 
Paul Piquado, Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, 
``Issues and Decision Memorandum for the Final Determination in the 
Antidumping Duty Investigation of Certain Corrosion-Resistant Steel 
Products from the People's Republic of China,'' (Final Decision 
Memorandum), dated concurrently with this determination and hereby 
adopted by this notice.
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Scope of the Investigation

    The product covered by this investigation is corrosion-resistant 
steel from the PRC. For a complete description of the scope of this 
investigation, see the ``Scope of the Investigation,'' in Appendix II 
of this notice.

Scope Comments

    In accordance with the Preliminary Scope Determination,\3\ the 
Department set aside a period of time for parties to address scope 
issues in case briefs or other written comments on scope issues.
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    \3\ See Memorandum to Gary Taverman, Associate Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, 
``Certain Corrosion-Resistant Steel Products From the People's 
Republic of China, India, Italy, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan: 
Scope Comments Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary 
Determinations,'' dated December 21, 2015 (``Preliminary Scope 
Decision Memorandum''). See also Memorandum to the File, ``Certain 
Corrosion-Resistant Steel Products From the People's Republic of 
China, India, Italy, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan: Correction 
to Preliminary Determination Scope Memorandum,'' dated January 29, 
2016.
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    For a summary of the product coverage comments and rebuttal 
responses submitted to the record of this final determination, and 
accompanying discussion and analysis of all comments timely received, 
see the Final Scope Decision Memorandum.\4\ The Final Scope Decision 
Memorandum is incorporated by, and hereby adopted by, this notice.
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    \4\ See Memorandum to Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, 
``Scope Comments Decision Memorandum for the Final Determinations,'' 
dated concurrently with this notice.
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Analysis of Comments Received

    All issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs by parties in 
this investigation are addressed in the Final Decision Memorandum 
accompanying this notice. A list of the issues raised and to which the 
Department responded is attached to this notice as Appendix I.

Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Act, in January 2016, the 
Department verified the sales and cost data reported by the mandatory 
respondent Yieh Phui (China) Technomaterial Co., Ltd. (Yieh Phui), 
pursuant to section 782(i) of the Act. We used standard verification 
procedures, including an examination of relevant accounting and 
production records, and original source documents provided by 
respondents.

Changes to the Margin Calculations Since the Preliminary Determination

    Based on the Department's analysis of the comments received and our 
findings at verification, we made certain changes to our margin 
calculations. For a discussion of these changes, see the Final Decision 
Memorandum.\5\
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    \5\ See Final Decision Memorandum.
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Combination Rates

    As stated in the Initiation Notice,\6\ the Department calculated 
combination rates for the respondents that are eligible for a separate 
rate in this investigation. Policy Bulletin 05.1 describes this 
practice.\7\
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    \6\ See Certain Corrosion-Resistant Steel Products From Italy, 
India, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and 
Taiwan: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations, 80 FR 
37228 (June 30, 2015) (Initiation Notice).
    \7\ See Enforcement and Compliance's Policy Bulletin No. 05.1, 
regarding, ``Separate-Rates Practice and Application of Combination 
Rates in Antidumping Investigations involving Non-Market Economy 
Countries,'' (April 5, 2005) (Policy Bulletin 05.1), available on 
the Department's Web site at https://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf.
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Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part

    Prior to the Preliminary Determination, the Department found that 
critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of corrosion-
resistant steel from the PRC produced or exported by the PRC-wide 
entity (which, as noted below, includes Hebei Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. 
(Tangshan Branch) (Tangshan) and Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. 
(Baoshan)).\8\ We are not modifying our findings for this final 
determination.\9\ Thus, pursuant to section 735(a)(3)(B) of the Act and 
19 CFR 351.206(h)(1)-(2), we find that critical circumstances exist 
with respect to subject merchandise produced or exported by the PRC-
wide entity, but do not exist for Yieh Phui and the other producers/
exporters entitled to a separate rate.
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    \8\ See Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations of 
Corrosion-Resistant Steel Products From India, Italy, the People's 
Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan: Preliminary 
Determinations of Critical Circumstances, 80 FR 68504 (November 5, 
2015).
    \9\ For a full description of the methodology and results of our 
analysis, see the Final Decision Memorandum.
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Separate Rate

    Under section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act, the rate for all other 
companies that have not been individually examined is normally an 
amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated weighted-average 
dumping margins established for exporters and producers individually 
investigated, excluding any zero and de minimis margins, and any 
margins determined entirely on the basis of facts available. In this 
final determination, we calculated a weighted-average dumping margin 
for Yieh Phui (the only cooperating mandatory respondent) which is not 
zero, de minimis, or based entirely on facts available. Accordingly, we 
determine to use Yieh Phui's weighted-average dumping margin as the 
margin for the separate rate companies.

PRC-Wide Rate

    In our Preliminary Determination, we found that the PRC-wide 
entity, which includes Baoshan, Tangshan, and other PRC exporters and/
or producers that did not respond to the Department's requests for 
information, failed to provide necessary information, withheld 
information requested by the Department, failed to provide information 
in a timely manner, and significantly impeded this proceeding by not 
submitting the requested information. As a result, we preliminarily 
determined to calculate the PRC-wide rate on the basis of adverse facts 
available (AFA). We examined whether the highest petition margin was 
less than or equal to the

[[Page 35318]]

highest calculated margin, and determined that the highest calculated 
margin of 255.80 percent was the higher of the two. Thus, for the 
Preliminary Determination, we assigned to the PRC-wide entity a dumping 
margin of 255.80 percent, the highest calculated margin. This rate was 
Yieh Phui's preliminary calculated margin. For this final 
determination, Yieh Phui's calculated margin changed to 209.97 percent, 
and it is still the highest calculated margin. Consistent with our 
practice, the Department selected Yieh Phui's highest calculated 
margin, as AFA, because this rate is higher than the highest petition 
rate in this investigation and therefore, sufficiently adverse to serve 
the purposes of facts available.\10\ Therefore, we assigned this rate 
to the PRC-wide entity for this final determination. Furthermore, there 
is no need to corroborate the selected margin because it is based on 
information submitted by Yieh Phui in the course of this investigation, 
i.e., it is not secondary information.\11\

Final Determination Margins

    The Department determines that the following weighted-average 
dumping margins, and cash deposit rates reflecting adjustments to the 
weighted-average dumping margins to account for export subsidies exist:

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                                                                                     Weighted-
                                                                                      average      Cash  deposit
                   Exporter                                 Producer                  dumping          rate
                                                                                      margin      (percent) \12\
                                                                                     (percent)
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Yieh Phui (China) Technomaterial Co., Ltd.....  Yieh Phui (China) Technomaterial          209.97          199.43
                                                 Co., Ltd..
Jiangyin Zongcheng Steel Co. Ltd..............  Jiangyin Zongcheng Steel Co.              209.97          199.43
                                                 Ltd..
Union Steel China.............................  Union Steel China...............          209.97          199.43
PRC-Wide Entity...............................  209.97..........................  ..............          199.43
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    As detailed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, Baoshan and 
Tangshan, mandatory respondents in this investigation, did not respond 
to our questionnaire and, thus, did not demonstrate that they were 
entitled to separate rates. We continue to find these companies to be 
part of the PRC-Wide Entity. Furthermore, because we did not receive 
quantity and value questionnaire responses or separate rate 
applications from numerous companies, the PRC-wide entity also includes 
these non-responsive companies.\13\
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    \10\ See Final Decision Memorandum for a detailed discussion.
    \11\ See 19 CFR 351.308(c) and (d) and section 776(c) of the 
Act.
    \12\ See ``Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation'' section 
below.
    \13\ See Memorandum to the File, ``Quantity and Value 
Questionnaire Recipients'' (July 16, 2015).
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Disclosure

    We intend to disclose to parties in this proceeding the 
calculations performed for this final determination within five days of 
the date of public announcement of our final determination, in 
accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b).

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    Pursuant to 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 entries of corrosion-resistant steel from 
the PRC, which were entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for 
consumption on or after October 6, 2015 (for those entities for which 
we found critical circumstances exist) or on or after January 4, 2016, 
the date of publication in the Federal Register of the affirmative 
Preliminary Determination (for all entities for which we did not find 
critical circumstances exist). Further, pursuant to section 
735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act, the Department will instruct CBP to 
require a cash deposit \14\ equal to the weighted-average amount by 
which the normal value exceeds U.S. price, adjusted where appropriate 
for export subsidies,\15\ as follows: (1) For the exporter/producer 
combinations listed in the table above, the cash deposit rate will be 
equal to the dumping margin which the Department determined in this 
final determination; (2) for all combinations of PRC exporters/
producers of merchandise under consideration which have not received 
their own separate rate above, the cash deposit rate will be equal to 
the dumping margin established for the PRC-wide entity; and (3) for all 
non-PRC exporters of merchandise under consideration which have not 
received their own separate rate above, the cash deposit rate will be 
equal to the cash deposit rate applicable to the PRC exporter/producer 
combination that supplied that non-PRC exporter. The suspension of 
liquidation instructions will remain in effect until further notice.
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    \14\ See Modification of Regulations Regarding the Practice of 
Accepting Bonds During the Provisional Measures Period in 
Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations, 76 FR 61042 
(October 3, 2011).
    \15\ See section 772(c)(1)(C) of the Act.
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    As noted above, where the product under investigation is also 
subject to a concurrent countervailing duty investigation, we instruct 
CBP to require a cash deposit less the amount of the countervailing 
duty determined to constitute any export subsidies.\16\ Therefore, in 
the event that a countervailing duty order is issued and suspension of 
liquidation is resumed in the companion countervailing duty 
investigation on corrosion-resistant steel from the PRC, the Department 
will instruct CBP to require cash deposits adjusted by the amount of 
export subsidies, as appropriate. These adjustments are reflected in 
the final column of the rate chart, above. Until such suspension of 
liquidation is resumed in the companion countervailing duty 
investigation, and so long as suspension of liquidation continues under 
this antidumping duty investigation, the cash deposit rates for this 
antidumping duty investigation will be the rates identified in the 
weighted-average margin column in the rate chart, above.
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    \16\ In the companion countervailing duty (CVD) investigation, 
the Department preliminarily found that Yieh Phu did not receive 
export subsidies. As a result, we did not adjust any of the 
companies' AD cash deposit rates for export subsidies. In the 
concurrent final CVD investigation, we determined that the Yieh Phui 
did receive export subsidies. In addition, pursuant to section 
777A(f) of the Act, we normally adjust preliminary cash deposit 
rates for estimated domestic subsidy pass-through, where 
appropriate. However, in this case in the Preliminary Determination, 
we did not grant a domestic subsidy pass-through adjustment. See 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum. We received no comments on this 
issues, and we have not changed this decision for this final 
determination.
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International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we will notify the 
U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) of our final determination. 
As our final determination is affirmative, in accordance with section 
735(b)(2) of the

[[Page 35319]]

Act, the ITC will determine within 45 days whether the domestic 
industry in the United States is materially injured, or threatened with 
material injury, by reason of imports or sales (or the likelihood of 
sales) for importation of the subject merchandise. If the ITC 
determines that such injury exists, the Department will issue an 
antidumping duty order 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

    In the event the ITC issues a final negative injury determination, 
this notice will serve as the only reminder to parties subject to an 
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 the return or destruction 
of APO materials, or conversion to judicial protective order, is hereby 
requested. Failure to comply with the regulations and terms of an APO 
is a violation subject to sanction.
    We are issuing and publishing this determination and notice in 
accordance with sections 735(d) and 777(i) of the Act.

    Dated: May 24, 2016.
Paul Piquado,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I--List of Topics Discussed in the Final Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Final Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part
IV. Scope Comments
V. Scope of the Investigation
VI. Changes Since the Preliminary Determinations
VII. Use of Adverse Facts Available
VIII. Discussion of the Issues
    Comment 1: Ocean Freight Surrogate Value
    Comment 2: Byproduct Offset
    Comment 3: Hot-Rolled Steel Surrogate Value
    Comment 4: Surrogate Financial Ratios
IX. Recommendation

Appendix II--Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by this investigation are certain flat-
rolled steel products, either clad, plated, or coated with 
corrosion-resistant metals such as zinc, aluminum, or zinc-, 
aluminum-, nickel- or iron-based alloys, whether or not corrugated 
or painted, varnished, laminated, or coated with plastics or other 
non-metallic substances in addition to the metallic coating. The 
products covered include coils that have a width of 12.7 mm or 
greater, regardless of form of coil (e.g., in successively 
superimposed layers, spirally oscillating, etc.). The products 
covered also include products not in coils (e.g., in straight 
lengths) of a thickness less than 4.75 mm and a width that is 12.7 
mm or greater and that measures at least 10 times the thickness. The 
products covered also include products not in coils (e.g., in 
straight lengths) of a thickness of 4.75 mm or more and a width 
exceeding 150 mm and measuring at least twice the thickness. The 
products described above may be rectangular, square, circular, or 
other shape and include products of either rectangular or non-
rectangular cross-section where such cross-section is achieved 
subsequent to the rolling process, i.e., products which have been 
``worked after rolling'' (e.g., products which have been beveled or 
rounded at the edges). For purposes of the width and thickness 
requirements referenced above:
    (1) Where the nominal and actual measurements vary, a product is 
within the scope if application of either the nominal or actual 
measurement would place it within the scope based on the definitions 
set forth above, and
    (2) where the width and thickness vary for a specific product 
(e.g., the thickness of certain products with non-rectangular cross-
section, the width of certain products with non-rectangular shape, 
etc.), the measurement at its greatest width or thickness applies.
    Steel products included in the scope of this investigation are 
products in which: (1) Iron predominates, by weight, over each of 
the other contained elements; (2) the carbon content is 2 percent or 
less, by weight; and (3) none of the elements listed below exceeds 
the quantity, by weight, respectively indicated:

 2.50 percent of manganese, or
 3.30 percent of silicon, or
 1.50 percent of copper, or
 1.50 percent of aluminum, or
 1.25 percent of chromium, or
 0.30 percent of cobalt, or
 0.40 percent of lead, or
 2.00 percent of nickel, or
 0.30 percent of tungsten (also called wolfram), or
 0.80 percent of molybdenum, or
 0.10 percent of niobium (also called columbium), or
 0.30 percent of vanadium, or
 0.30 percent of zirconium

    Unless specifically excluded, products are included in this 
scope regardless of levels of boron and titanium.
    For example, specifically included in this scope are vacuum 
degassed, fully stabilized (commonly referred to as interstitial-
free (IF)) steels and high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels. IF 
steels are recognized as low carbon steels with micro-alloying 
levels of elements such as titanium and/or niobium added to 
stabilize carbon and nitrogen elements. HSLA steels are recognized 
as steels with micro-alloying levels of elements such as chromium, 
copper, niobium, titanium, vanadium, and molybdenum.
    Furthermore, this scope also includes Advanced High Strength 
Steels (AHSS) and Ultra High Strength Steels (UHSS), both of which 
are considered high tensile strength and high elongation steels.
    Subject merchandise also includes corrosion-resistant steel that 
has been further processed in a third country, including but not 
limited to annealing, tempering, painting, varnishing, trimming, 
cutting, punching and/or slitting or any other processing that would 
not otherwise remove the merchandise from the scope of the 
investigation if performed in the country of manufacture of the in-
scope corrosion resistant steel.
    All products that meet the written physical description, and in 
which the chemistry quantities do not exceed any one of the noted 
element levels listed above, are within the scope of this 
investigation unless specifically excluded. The following products 
are outside of and/or specifically excluded from the scope of this 
investigation:
     Flat-rolled steel products either plated or coated with 
tin, lead, chromium, chromium oxides, both tin and lead (terne 
plate), or both chromium and chromium oxides (tin free steel), 
whether or not painted, varnished or coated with plastics or other 
non-metallic substances in addition to the metallic coating;
     Clad products in straight lengths of 4.7625 mm or more 
in composite thickness and of a width which exceeds 150 mm and 
measures at least twice the thickness; and
     Certain clad stainless flat-rolled products, which are 
three-layered corrosion-resistant flat-rolled steel products less 
than 4.75 mm in composite thickness that consist of a flat-rolled 
steel product clad on both sides with stainless steel in a 20%-60%-
20% ratio.
    The products subject to the investigation are currently 
classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTSUS) under item numbers: 7210.30.0030, 7210.30.0060, 
7210.41.0000, 7210.49.0030, 7210.49.0091, 7210.49.0095, 
7210.61.0000, 7210.69.0000, 7210.70.6030, 7210.70.6060, 
7210.70.6090, 7210.90.6000, 7210.90.9000, 7212.20.0000, 
7212.30.1030, 7212.30.1090, 7212.30.3000, 7212.30.5000, 
7212.40.1000, 7212.40.5000, 7212.50.0000, and 7212.60.0000.
    The products subject to the investigation may also enter under 
the following HTSUS item numbers: 7210.90.1000, 7215.90.1000, 
7215.90.3000, 7215.90.5000, 7217.20.1500, 7217.30.1530, 
7217.30.1560, 7217.90.1000, 7217.90.5030, 7217.90.5060, 
7217.90.5090, 7225.91.0000, 7225.92.0000, 7225.99.0090, 
7226.99.0110, 7226.99.0130, 7226.99.0180, 7228.60.6000, 
7228.60.8000, and 7229.90.1000.
    The HTSUS subheadings above are provided for convenience and 
customs purposes only. The written description of the scope of the 
investigation is dispositive.

[FR Doc. 2016-12965 Filed 6-1-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P