[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 188 (Thursday, September 27, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49345-49347]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-24230]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-864]


Notice of Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: 
Pure Magnesium in Granular Form From the People's Republic of China

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of final determination of sales at less than fair value.

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EFFECTIVE DATE: September 27, 2001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Gehr or Shawn Thompson, AD/
CVD Enforcement Group I, Office 2, Import Administration, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and 
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-
1779 or (202) 482-1776, respectively.
SUMMARY: On April 30, 2000, the Department of Commerce published its 
preliminary determination of sales at less than fair value of pure 
magnesium in granular form from the People's Republic of China. The 
period of investigation is April 1, 2000, through September 30, 2000.
    Based on our analysis of the comments received, we have made 
changes in the margin calculations. Therefore, the final determination 
differs from the preliminary determination. The final weighted-average 
dumping margins for the investigated companies are listed below in the 
section entitled ``Final Determination.''

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Applicable Statute and Regulations

    Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the Tariff Act of 
1930, as amended (the Act), are references to the provisions effective 
January 1, 1995, the effective date of the amendments made to the Act 
by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA). In addition, unless 
otherwise indicated, all citations

[[Page 49346]]

to the regulations of the Department of Commerce (the Department) are 
to 19 CFR part 351 (2000).

Final Determination

    We determine that pure magnesium in granular form from the People's 
Republic of China (PRC) 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 Act.

Case History

    The preliminary determination in this investigation was issued on 
April 23, 2001. See Notice of Preliminary Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value and Postponement of Final Determination: Pure 
Magnesium in Granular Form from the People's Republic of China, 66 FR 
21314 (April 30, 2001) (Preliminary Determination).
    In June, we conducted verification of the questionnaires responses 
of the sole participating respondent in this case, Minmetals Precious & 
Rare Minerals Import and Export/China National Nonferrous Metals 
Industry Trading Group Corp. (Minmetals).
    In July, we received case briefs from the petitioners (i.e., 
Magnesium Corporation of America, the United Steelworkers of America, 
USWA 482 and 8319, and Concerned Employees of Northwest Alloys, Inc.) 
and the respondent, as well as from two U.S. producers of magnesium-
based reagent mixtures and importers of magnesium products (i.e., 
Rossborough Manufacturing Co L.P. (Rossborough) and ESM Group, Inc.). 
The Department held a public hearing on August 2, 2001, at the request 
of the petitioners, Minmetals, and Rossborough.
    Although the deadline for this determination was originally 
September 12, 2001, in light of the events of September 11, 2001 and 
the subsequent closure of the Federal Government for reasons of 
security, the time-frame for issuing this determination has been 
extended by two days.

Scope of Investigation

    There is an existing antidumping duty order on pure magnesium from 
the PRC. See Notice of Antidumping Duty Orders: Pure Magnesium From the 
People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation and Ukraine; Notice 
of Amended Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: 
Antidumping Duty Investigation of Pure Magnesium From the Russian 
Federation,  60 FR 25691 (May 12, 1995). The scope of this 
investigation excludes pure magnesium that is already covered by the 
existing order, and classifiable under item numbers 8104.11.00 and 
8104.19.00 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTSUS).
    The scope of this investigation includes imports of pure magnesium 
products, regardless of chemistry, including, without limitation, 
raspings, granules, turnings, chips, powder, and briquettes, except as 
noted above.
    Pure magnesium includes: (1) products that contain at least 99.95 
percent primary magnesium, by weight (generally referred as ``ultra-
pure'' magnesium); (2) products that contain less than 99.95 percent 
but not less than 99.8 percent primary magnesium, by weight (generally 
referred to as ``pure'' magnesium); (3) chemical combinations of pure 
magnesium and other material(s) in which the pure magnesium content is 
50 percent or greater, but less than 99.8 percent, by weight, that do 
not conform to an ``ASTM Specification for Magnesium Alloy'' \1\ 
(generally referred to as ``off-specification pure'' magnesium); and 
(4) physical mixtures of pure magnesium and other material(s) in which 
the pure magnesium content is 50 percent or greater, but less than 99.8 
percent, by weight. Excluded from this order are mixtures containing 90 
percent or less pure magnesium by weight and one or more of certain 
non-magnesium granular materials to make magnesium-based reagent 
mixtures. The non-magnesium granular materials which the Department is 
aware are used to make such excluded reagents are: lime, calcium metal, 
calcium silicon, calcium carbide, calcium carbonate, carbon, slag 
coagulants, fluorspar, nephaline syenite, feldspar, aluminum, alumina 
(Al2O3), calcium aluminate, soda ash, 
hydrocarbons, graphite, coke, silicon, rare earth metals/mischmetal, 
cryolite, silica/fly ash, magnesium oxide, periclase, ferroalloys, 
dolomitic lime, and colemanite. A party importing a magnesium-based 
reagent which includes one or more materials not on this list is 
required to seek a scope clarification from the Department before such 
a mixture may be imported free of antidumping duties.
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    \1\ The meaning of this term is the same as that used by the 
American Society for Testing and Materials in its Annual Book of 
ASTM Standards: Volume 01.02 Aluminum and Magnesium Alloys.
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    The merchandise subject to this investigation is classifiable under 
item 8104.30.00 of the HTSUS. Although the HTSUS subheading is provided 
for convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the 
merchandise under investigation is dispositive.

Comments on Scope

    We made changes to the scope based on comments received from 
interested parties. See Comment 14 of the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum for the Final Determination in the Antidumping Duty 
Investigation of Pure Magnesium from the People's Republic of China 
(Decision Memorandum), from Richard W. Moreland, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary, Import Administration to Faryar Shirzad, Assistant Secretary 
for Import Administration, dated September 14, 2001.

Period of Investigation

    The period of investigation is April 1, 2000 through September 30, 
2000, which corresponds to Minmetals' two most recent fiscal quarters 
prior to the month of the filing of the petition (i.e., October 2000).

Nonmarket Economy Status for the PRC

    The Department has treated the PRC as a nonmarket economy (NME) 
country in all past antidumping investigations. See, e.g., Final 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Certain Preserved 
Mushrooms from the People's Republic of China, 63 FR 72255, 72256 (Dec. 
31, 1998). A designation as a NME remains in effect until it is revoked 
by the Department. See section 771(18)(C) of the Act. No party in this 
investigation has requested a revocation of the PRC's NME status. 
Therefore, we have continued to treat the PRC as an NME in this 
investigation. For further details, see the Preliminary Determination.

Separate Rate

    In our preliminary determination, we found that Minmetals had met 
the criteria for receiving a separate antidumping rate. We have not 
received any information since the preliminary determination which 
would warrant reconsideration of our separate rate determination with 
respect to this company. Therefore, we continue to find that Minmetals 
should be assigned in individual dumping margin. For further 
discussion, see Comment 1 in the Decision Memorandum.

Surrogate Country

    For purposes of the final determination, we continue to find that 
India is the appropriate primary surrogate country for the PRC. For 
further discussion and analysis regarding the surrogate country 
selection for the PRC, see the Preliminary Determination, 66 FR at 
18442.

PRC-Wide Rate and Use of Facts Otherwise Available

    As explained in the Department's Preliminary Determination, 
Minmetals was the only exporter to respond to the

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Department's questionnaire and cooperative in this investigation. 
Therefore, we have continued to calculate a company-specific rate for 
Minmetals only. However, in the preliminary determination, we stated 
that our review of U.S. import statistics from the PRC revealed that 
Minmetals did not account for all imports into the United States from 
the PRC. For this reason, we determined that some PRC exporters of 
subject merchandise failed to cooperate in this investigation. In 
accordance with our standard practice, as adverse facts available, we 
are assigning at the PRC-wide rate the higher of: (1) the highest 
margins stated in the notice of initiation; or (2) margin calculated 
for Minmetals. See, e.g., Final Determination of Sales at Less Than 
Fair Value: Certain Cold-Rolled Flat-Rolled Carbon Quality Steel 
Products From The People's Republic of China, 65 FR 34660 (May 31, 200) 
and accompanying decision memorandum at Comment 1. For purposes of the 
final determination of the investigation, we are using the margin 
stated in the notice of initiation (i.e., 305.56 percent) since it is 
higher than the margin calculated for Minmetals.

Analysis of Comments Received

    All issued raised in the case briefs by parties to this proceeding 
and to which we have responded are listed in the Appendix to this 
notice and addressed in the Decision Memorandum, which is adopted by 
this notice. Parties can find a complete discussion of the issues 
raised in this investigation and the corresponding recommendations in 
this public memorandum, which is on file in the Central Records Unit, 
room B-099 of the main Commerce Building. In addition a complete 
version of the Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly to the Web 
at http://ia.ita.doc.gov. The paper copy and electronic version of the 
Decision Memorandum are identical in content.

Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

    Based on our analysis of comments received, we have made certain 
changes to the margin calculations. For a discussion of these changes, 
see the ``Margin Calculations'' section of the Decision Memorandum.

Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Act, we verified the 
information submitted by the respondent for use in our final 
determination. We used standard verification procedures including 
examination of relevant accounting and production records, and original 
source documents provided by the respondent.

Final Determination

    We determine that the following percentage weighted-average margins 
exist for the period April 1, 2000 through September 30, 2000:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                Manufacturer/exporter                   Margin (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minmetals Precious & Rare Minerals Import and Export/              24.67
 China National Nonferrous Metals Industry Trading
 Group Corp..........................................
PRC-Wide Rate........................................             305.56
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    The PRC-wide rate applies to all entries of the subject merchandise 
except for entries from exporters/producers that are identified 
individually above.

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, we are 
directing the Customs Service to continue to suspend liquidation of all 
entries of pure magnesium in granular form from the PRC that are 
entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after April 
30, 2001. The Customs Service shall continue to require a cash deposit 
or the posting of a bond based on the estimated weighted-average 
dumping margins shown above. The suspension of liquidation instructions 
will remain in effect until further notice.

ITC Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we have notified the 
International Trade Commission (ITC) of our determination. As our final 
determination is affirmative, the ITC will determine, within 45 days, 
whether these imports are causing material injury, or threat of 
material injury, to an industry in the United States. If the ITC 
determines that material injury or threat of injury does not exist, the 
proceeding will be terminated and all securities posted will be 
refunded or canceled. If the ITC determines that such injury does 
exist, the Department will issue an antidumping duty order directing 
Customs officials to assess 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.
    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 determination and notice in 
accordance with sections section 735(d) and 777(i) of the Act.

    Dated: September 14, 2001.
Faryar Shirzad,
Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.

Appendix--Issues in the Decision Memorandum

Comments

Comment 1: Separate Rate for Minmetals
Comment 2: The Use of a Combination Rate
Comment 3: The Proper Surrogates for Overhead, SG&A and Profit 
Ratios
Comment 4: Calculation of Overhead and SG&A Ratios Applied to HEBI
Comment 5: Valuation of Steam Coal
Comment 6: Valuation of Ferrosilicon and Dolomite
Comment 7: Marine Insurance Adjustment for Inflation
Comment 8: Ocean Freight
Comment 9: Treatment of Fluorite Powder as Overhead Expense vs. 
Direct material Input
Comment 10: Valuation of Tiayuan's July 2000 Electricity Consumption 
Factor
Comment 11: Correction of Tiayuan's Direct Labor Hours
Comment 12: Correction of HEBI's Packing Material Weights
Comment 13: Treatment of Magnesium Shreds
Comment 14: Revision to the Scope of the Investigation
Comment 15: Reconsideration of Industry Standing

[FR Doc. 01-24230 Filed 9-19-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P