Non-Oriented Electrical Steel From Taiwan: Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Postponement of Final Determination

AGENCY:

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

SUMMARY:

The Department of Commerce (“Department”) preliminarily determines that non-oriented electrical steel (“NOES”) from Taiwan is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (“LTFV”), as provided in section 733(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (“the Act”). The period of investigation (“POI”) is July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013. The estimated weighted-average dumping margins are listed in the “Preliminary Determination” section of this notice. Interested parties are invited to comment on this preliminary determination.

DATES:

Effective May 22, 2014.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Krisha Hill or Karine Gziryan, AD/CVD Operations, Office IV, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-4037 or (202) 482-4081, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The Department published the notice of initiation of this investigation on November 18, 2013. Pursuant to a timely request from AK Steel Corporation, and section 773(c)(1)(A) of the Act, the Department postponed this preliminary LTFV determination by a period of 50 days.

Scope of the Investigation

The merchandise subject to this investigation consists of non-oriented electrical steel (NOES), which includes cold-rolled, flat-rolled, alloy steel products, whether or not in coils, regardless of width, having an actual thickness of 0.20 mm or more, in which the core loss is substantially equal in any direction of magnetization in the plane of the material. The term “substantially equal” means that the cross grain direction of core loss is no more than 1.5 times the straight grain direction (i.e., the rolling direction) of core loss. NOES has a magnetic permeability that does not exceed 1.65 Tesla when tested at a field of 800 A/m (equivalent to 10 Oersteds) along (i.e., parallel to) the rolling direction of the sheet (i.e., B₈₀₀ value). NOES contains by weight more than 1.00 percent of silicon but less than 3.5 percent of silicon, not more than 0.08 percent of carbon, and not more than 1.5 percent of aluminum. NOES has a surface oxide coating, to which an insulation coating may be applied.

NOES is subject to this investigation whether it is fully processed (i.e., fully annealed to develop final magnetic properties) or semi-processed (i.e., finished to final thickness and physical form but not fully annealed to develop final magnetic properties). Fully processed NOES is typically made to the requirements of ASTM specification A 677, Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) specification C 2552, and/or International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) specification 60404-8-4. Semi-processed NOES is typically made to the requirements of ASTM specification A 683. However, the scope of this investigation is not limited to merchandise meeting the ASTM, JIS and IEC specifications noted immediately above.

NOES is sometimes referred to as cold-rolled non-oriented (CRNO), non-grain oriented (NGO), non-oriented (NO), or cold-rolled non-grain oriented (CRNGO) electrical steel. These terms are interchangeable.

Excluded from the scope of this investigation 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 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) as a part (i.e., lamination) for use in a device such as a motor, generator, or transformer.

The subject merchandise is provided for in subheadings 7225.19.0000, 7226.19.1000, and 7226.19.9000 of the HTSUS. Subject merchandise may also be entered under subheadings 7225.50.8085, 7225.99.0090, 7226.92.5000, 7226.92.7050, 7226.92.8050, 7226.99.0180 of the HTSUS. Although HTSUS subheadings are provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the scope is dispositive.

Methodology

The Department conducted this investigation in accordance with section 731 of the Act. Because the mandatory respondent Leicong Industrial Company, Ltd. (“Leicong”) failed to respond to the Department's questionnaire, we preliminarily determined to apply facts otherwise available with an adverse inference to this respondent pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act. In applying adverse facts available, we are assigning Leicong a rate of 52.23 percent. For CSC, export prices have been calculated in accordance with section 772 of the Act. Normal value (“NV”) has been calculated in accordance with section 773 of the Act.

For a full description of the analysis underlying our preliminary determination, see “Decision Memorandum for Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Non-Oriented Electrical Steel from Taiwan,” (“Preliminary Decision Memorandum”) from Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, to Ronald K. Lorentzen, Acting Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, dated concurrently with this determination and hereby adopted by this notice. The Preliminary Decision Memorandum is a public document and is made available to the public via Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (“IA ACCESS”). IA ACCESS is available to registered users at https://iaaccess.trade.gov,, and is available to all parties in the Department's Central Records Unit, located at room 7046 of the main Department of Commerce building. In addition, a complete version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be found on the Internet at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn. The signed Preliminary Decision Memorandum and the electronic versions of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum are identical in content.

All Others Rate

Section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act provides that the estimated “all others” rate shall be an amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated weighted-average dumping margins established for exporters and producers individually examined, excluding all zero or de minimis rates, and all rates determined entirely under section 776 of the Act. CSC is the only respondent in this investigation for which the Department calculated a company-specific rate which is not zero, de minimis or based entirely on facts available. Therefore, for purposes of determining the “all others” rate and pursuant to section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act, we are using the weighted-average dumping margin calculated for CSC, as the estimated weighted-average dumping margin assigned to all other producers and exporters of the merchandise under consideration.

Preliminary Determination

The Department preliminarily determined that the following estimated weighted-average dumping margins exist for the producers or exporters during the period July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 at the following rates:

Disclosure and Public Comment

We intend to disclose the calculations performed to parties in this proceeding within five days of the date of publication of this notice in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b).

Case briefs or other written comments may be submitted to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance no later than seven days after the date on which the final verification report is issued in this proceeding, and rebuttal briefs, limited to issues raised in case briefs, may be submitted no later than five days after the deadline date for case briefs. A table of contents, list of authorities used, and an executive summary of issues should accompany any briefs submitted to the Department. This summary should be limited to five pages total, including footnotes.

Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), interested parties who wish to request a hearing, or to participate if one is requested, must submit a written request to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce, filed electronically using IA ACCESS. An electronically filed document must be received successfully in its entirety by the Department's electronic records system, IA ACCESS, by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice. Requests should contain the party's name, address, and telephone number, the number of participants, and a list of the issues to be discussed. If a request for a hearing is made, the Department intends to hold the hearing at the U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230, at a time and location to be determined. Parties should confirm by telephone the date, time, and location of the hearing two days before the scheduled date.

Suspension of Liquidation

In accordance with section 733(d)(2) of the Act, we are directing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) to suspend liquidation of all entries of NOES from Taiwan as described in the scope of the investigation section entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register.

Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.205(d), we will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit equal to the weighted-average amount by which the NV exceeds Export Price, as indicated in the chart above. These suspension of liquidation instructions will remain in effect until further notice.

Postponement of Final Determination and Extension of Provisional Measures

Pursuant to a request from CSC, we are postponing the final determination and extending the provisional measures from a four-month period to not more than six months. Accordingly, we will make our final determination no later than 135 days after the date of publication of this preliminary determination, pursuant to section 735(a)(2) of the Act.

International Trade Commission (“ITC”) Notification

In accordance with section 733(f) of the Act, we have notified the ITC of our preliminary affirmative determination of sales at LTFV. Because the preliminary determination in this proceeding is affirmative, section 735(b)(2) of the Act requires that the ITC 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 NOES from Taiwan before the later of 120 days after the date of this preliminary determination or 45 days after our final determination. Because we are postponing the deadline for our final determination to 135 days from the date of the publication of this preliminary determination, as discussed above, the ITC will make its final determination no later than 45 days after our final determination.

This determination is issued and published in accordance with sections 733(f) and 777(i)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.205(c).

List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum

1. Summary

2. Background

3. Period of Investigation

4. Postponement of Final Determination and Extension of Provisional Measures

5. Scope Comments

6. Scope of the Investigation

7. Selection of Respondents

8. Discussion of Methodology

a. Fair Value Comparisons

b. Product Comparisons

c. Date of Sale

d. U.S. Price

e. Normal Value

i. Home Market Viability

ii. Overruns

iii. Level of Trade

iv. Calculation of Normal Value Based on Home Market Prices

f. Cost of Production

i. Calculation of COP

ii. Test of Comparison Market Sales Prices

iii. Results of COP Test

9. Currency Conversion

10. Verification