[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 97 (Monday, May 20, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35488-35490]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-12595]



[[Page 35488]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-423-810]


Notice of Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: 
Structural Steel Beams From Luxembourg

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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SUMMARY: On December 28, 2001, the Department of Commerce published its 
preliminary determination of sales at less than fair value of 
structural steel beams from Luxembourg. Subsequently, we published an 
amended preliminary determination of sales at not less than fair value 
on January 31, 2002. The period of investigation is April 1, 2000, 
through March 31, 2001.
    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 margin for the investigated company is listed below in the 
section entitled ``Final Determination Margins.''

EFFECTIVE DATE: May 20, 2002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David J. Goldberger or Margarita 
Panayi, 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) 482-4136 or (202) 482-0049, respectively.

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 to the regulations of the Department 
of Commerce (the Department) are to 19 CFR part 351 (April 2001).
    Final Determination: We determine that structural steel beams from 
Luxembourg are being, or are 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 
December 19, 2001. See Notice of Preliminary Determination of Sales at 
Not Less Than Fair Value and Postponement of Final Determination: 
Structural Steel Beams From Luxembourg, 66 FR 67223 (December 28, 2001) 
(Preliminary Determination). On January 31, 2002, we published an 
amended preliminary determination. See Notice of Amended Preliminary 
Determination of Sales at Not Less Than Fair Value and Postponement of 
Final Determination: Structural Steel Beams From Luxembourg, 67 FR 4701 
(January 31, 2002).
    In January, February and March, we conducted verifications of the 
questionnaire responses of the sole respondent in this case, 
ProfilARBED, S.A. (ProfilARBED).
    In April 2002, we received case and rebuttal briefs from the 
petitioners (the Committee for Fair Beam Imports and its individual 
members) and ProfilARBED. The Department held a public hearing on April 
19, 2002, at the request of the petitioners and ProfilARBED.

Scope of Investigation

    The scope of this investigation covers doubly-symmetric shapes, 
whether hot- or cold-rolled, drawn, extruded, formed or finished, 
having at least one dimension of at least 80 mm (3.2 inches or more), 
whether of carbon or alloy (other than stainless) steel, and whether or 
not drilled, punched, notched, painted, coated, or clad. These 
structural steel beams include, but are not limited to, wide-flange 
beams (``W'' shapes), bearing piles (``HP'' shapes), standard beams 
(``S'' or ``I'' shapes), and M-shapes. All the products that meet the 
physical and metallurgical descriptions provided above are within the 
scope of this investigation unless otherwise excluded. The following 
products are outside and/or specifically excluded from the scope of 
this investigation: (1) Structural steel beams greater than 400 pounds 
per linear foot, (2) structural steel beams that have a web or section 
height (also known as depth) over 40 inches, and (3) structural steel 
beams that have additional weldments, connectors, or attachments to I-
sections, H-sections, or pilings; however, if the only additional 
weldment, connector or attachment on the beam is a shipping brace 
attached to maintain stability during transportation, the beam is not 
removed from the scope definition by reason of such additional 
weldment, connector, or attachment.
    The merchandise subject to this investigation is classified in the 
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (``HTSUS'') at 
subheadings 7216.32.0000, 7216.33.0030, 7216.33.0060, 7216.33.0090, 
7216.50.0000, 7216.61.0000, 7216.69.0000, 7216.91.0000, 7216.99.0000, 
7228.70.3040, and 7228.70.6000. Although the HTSUS subheadings are 
provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written description 
of the merchandise under investigation is dispositive.

Scope Comments

    Prior to the preliminary determination in this case, interested 
parties in this and the concurrent structural steel beams 
investigations requested that the following products be excluded from 
the scope of the investigations: (1) Beams of grade A913/65 and (2) 
forklift mast profiles. We preliminarily found that both products fell 
within the scope of this investigation. Because we have received no 
further scope comments in this proceeding, we are making a final 
determination that these products fall within the scope of this 
investigation.

Period of Investigation

    The period of investigation is April 1, 2000, through March 31, 
2001, which corresponds to ProfilARBED's four most recent fiscal 
quarters prior to the month of the filing of the petition (i.e., May 
2001).

Analysis of Comments Received

    All issues 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 on the Web at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/frn/index.html. 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, 
ProfilARBED Final Determination Calculations, Memorandum to the File 
dated May 13, 2002, and Cost of Production and Constructed Value 
Calculation

[[Page 35489]]

Adjustments for the Final Determination, Memorandum to Neal Halper from 
Heidi S. Norris dated May 13, 2002 (Cost Calculation Memo).
    1. We used the revised third country and U.S. sales listings, 
submitted on April 17, 2002, which took into account revisions 
presented at the commencement of verifications and our verification 
findings, as discussed in the April 10, 2002, letter requesting the 
revised data bases.
    2. We used the revised cost of production (COP) data base submitted 
on April 5, 2002, which included the corrections for the formula errors 
presented at the commencement of the COP verification.
    3. We reclassified the shape variable (SHAPET/U) for ProfilARBED's 
sales of IPN beams, consistent with our determination in the companion 
structural steel beams from Italy investigation, and the classification 
of IPN beams by ProfilARBED's Spanish affiliate, Aceralia Corporacion 
Siderurgica (Aceralia), in the companion structural steel beams from 
Spain investigation.
    4. We made corrections to ProfilARBED's April 17, 2002, third 
country sales listing to account for errors identified in the 
petitioners' April 26, 2002, letter and ProfilARBED's April 30, 2002, 
and May 1, 2002, letters.
    5. For ProfilARBED's sales to affiliated resellers that were 
shipped directly to the customer, and where the price from ProfilARBED 
to the affiliate was not at arm's length, we applied the highest gross 
third country price reported for that product, less movement expenses, 
among the sales to unaffiliated customers and affiliated customers at 
arm's length.
    6. We adjusted the cost of manufacture to reflect the higher of the 
transfer price, COP, or market price for electricity.
    7. We adjusted the cost of manufacture to reflect the transfer 
price paid by ProfilARBED to their affiliates for the leases.
    8. We revised the general and administrative (G&A) expense ratio to 
account for exchange rate gains and losses and to exclude sales 
commission offsets and a financial income offset.
    9. We revised the financial expense rate, as described in the Cost 
Calculation Memo.
    10. We revised the date of sale for U.S. sales to the date of 
shipment from the European port, except for U.S. warehouse sales, where 
we applied the earlier of invoice date or warehouse shipment date.
    11. We applied the average ocean freight expense reported for west 
coast U.S. ports to all U.S. sales, except for those specific 
transactions where the reported expense was higher than this average, 
as facts available, because ProfilARBED failed to disclose properly 
that it used an affiliated supplier of ocean freight services.
    12. We revised the U.S. imputed credit calculation to account for a 
revised U.S. interest rate, based on our verification findings, and the 
date of sale revision. In addition, we revised the inventory carrying 
expenses reported on U.S. sales shipped directly to the customer to 
account for the revised date of sale.
    13. We revised the U.S. indirect selling expenses incurred in the 
United States to include a portion incurred by another U.S. affiliate.
    14. We revised the offset to the interest expense component of U.S. 
indirect selling expenses to account for imputed credit expenses on a 
company-wide basis.
    15. Except for sales shipped through the U.S. ports where we were 
able to verify the port-specific charges, we applied the highest U.S. 
port-specific per-unit brokerage and handling expense rate on the 
record of this investigation, to all U.S. sales incurring this expense.

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 Margins

    The weighted-average dumping margins are as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                Margin
                   Manufacturer/exporter                      (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ProfilARBED, S.A...........................................        15.23
All Others.................................................        15.23
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In accordance with section 735(c)(5)(A), we have based the ``all 
others'' rate on the dumping margin found for the sole producer/
exporter investigated in this proceeding, ProfilARBED.

Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, we are 
directing the Customs Service to suspend liquidation of all entries of 
structural steel beams from Luxembourg that are entered, or withdrawn 
from warehouse, for consumption on or after the publication date of 
this final determination. The Customs Service shall require a cash 
deposit or the posting of a bond based on the estimated weighted-
average dumping margin 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 75 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: May 13, 2002.
Faryar Shirzad,
Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.

Appendix--Issues in the Decision Memorandum

Comments

    1. Third-Country Sales Data Base
    2. Sales by Affiliated Resellers in Germany
    3. Third-Country Sales Rebate Adjustments
    4. Date of Sale for CEP Transactions
    5. Ocean Freight Expenses Through Affiliate
    6. Inclusion of U.S. Affiliate's Expenses in Calculation of U.S. 
Indirect Selling Expense
    7. Interest Expenses Included in U.S. Indirect Selling Expenses
    8. Price of Electricity from Affiliates
    9. Price of Natural Gas from Affiliates

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    10. Valuation of Leases from Affiliates
    11. Exchange Rate Gains and Losses in the G&A Calculation
    12. Petitioners Ability to Comment Meaningfully
    13. Calculation of the Overall Dumping Margin
[FR Doc. 02-12595 Filed 5-17-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-05-P