[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 135 (Monday, July 14, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40293-40295]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-15964]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-896]


Magnesium Metal from the People's Republic of China: Final 
Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (the ``Department'') is conducting 
an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on magnesium 
metal from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') covering the period 
April 1, 2006, through March 30, 2007. On March 6, 2008, we published 
our preliminary results. See Magnesium Metal From the People's Republic 
of China: Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative 
Review, 73 FR 12122 (``Preliminary Results''). We invited interested 
parties to comment on these preliminary results. Based on our analysis 
of the comments received, we have made changes to our margin 
calculations. Therefore, the final results differ from the preliminary 
results.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 14, 2008.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karine Gziryan, AD/CVD Operations, 
Office 4, Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, 
Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-4081.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On March 6, 2008, the Department published its Preliminary Results. 
The mandatory respondent in this case is Tianjin Magnesium 
International Co., Ltd., (``TMI''). TMI and the petitioner\1\ submitted 
case briefs on April 7, 2008, and rebuttal briefs on April 14, 2008. In 
addition, the petitioner and TMI submitted requests for a hearing on 
April 7, 2008. The hearing was held on May 6, 2008. The Department has 
conducted this administrative review in accordance with section 751 of 
the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (``the Act'').
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    \1\ The petitioner is U.S. Magnesium LLC.
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Period of Review

    The period of review (``POR'') for this administrative review is 
April 1, 2006, through March 31, 2007.

Scope of the Order

    The product covered by this antidumping duty order is magnesium 
metal, which includes primary and secondary alloy magnesium metal, 
regardless of chemistry, raw material source, form, shape, or size. 
Magnesium is a metal or alloy containing by weight primarily the 
element magnesium. Primary magnesium is produced by decomposing raw 
materials into magnesium metal. Secondary magnesium is produced by 
recycling magnesium-based scrap into magnesium metal. The magnesium 
covered by this antidumping duty order includes blends of primary and 
secondary magnesium.
    The subject merchandise includes the following alloy magnesium 
metal products made from primary and/or secondary magnesium including, 
without limitation, magnesium cast into ingots, slabs, rounds, billets, 
and other shapes, magnesium ground, chipped, crushed, or machined into 
raspings, granules, turnings, chips, powder, briquettes, and other 
shapes: products that contain 50 percent or greater, but less than 99.8 
percent, magnesium, by weight, and that have been entered into the 
United States as conforming to an ``ASTM Specification for Magnesium 
Alloy''\2\ and thus are outside the scope of the existing antidumping 
orders on magnesium from the PRC (generally referred to as ``alloy'' 
magnesium).
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    \2\ 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 scope of the antidumping duty order excludes the following 
merchandise: (1) all forms of pure magnesium, including chemical 
combinations of 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''\3\ (2) magnesium that is in liquid or molten form; and (3) 
mixtures containing 90 percent or less magnesium in granular or powder 
form, by weight, and one or more of certain non-magnesium granular 
materials to make magnesium-based reagent mixtures, including lime, 
calcium metal, calcium silicon, calcium carbide, calcium carbonate, 
carbon, slag coagulants, fluorspar, nephaline syenite, feldspar, 
alumina (Al203), calcium aluminate, soda ash, hydrocarbons, graphite, 
coke, silicon, rare earth metals/mischmetal, cryolite, silica/fly ash, 
magnesium oxide, periclase, ferroalloys, dolomite lime, and 
colemanite.\4\
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    \3\ This material is already covered by existing antidumping 
orders. See Antidumping Duty Orders: Pure Magnesium from the 
People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation and Ukraine; 
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), and Antidumping Duty Order: 
Pure Magnesium in Granular Form from the People's Republic of China, 
66 FR 57936 (November 19, 2001).
    \4\ This third exclusion for magnesium-based reagent mixtures is 
based on the exclusion for reagent mixtures in the 2000-2001 
investigations of magnesium from the PRC, Israel, and Russia. See 
Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Pure Magnesium 
in Granular Form From the People's Republic of China, 66 FR 49345 
(September 27, 2001); Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair 
Value: Pure Magnesium From Israel, 66 FR 49349 (September 27, 2001); 
Final Determination of Sales at Not Less Than Fair Value: Pure 
Magnesium From the Russian Federation, 66 FR 49347 (September 27, 
2001). These mixtures are not magnesium alloys because they are not 
chemically combined in liquid form and cast into the same ingot.
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    The merchandise subject to this antidumping duty order is currently 
classifiable under items 8104.19.00 and 8104.30.00 of the Harmonized 
Tariff Schedule of the United States (``HTSUS''). Although the HTSUS 
items are provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written 
description of the merchandise under investigation is dispositive.

Separate Rates

    In proceedings involving non-market economy (``NME'') countries, 
the Department begins with a rebuttable presumption that all companies 
within the country are subject to government control and, thus, should 
be assigned a single antidumping duty deposit rate. It is the 
Department's policy to assign all exporters of merchandise subject to 
review in an NME country this single

[[Page 40294]]

rate unless an exporter can demonstrate that it is sufficiently 
independent so as to be entitled to a separate rate.
    In the Preliminary Results, we found that TMI demonstrated its 
eligibility for separate-rate status. We received no comments from 
interested parties regarding the separate rate status of these 
companies. In these final results of review, we continue to find that 
the evidence placed on the record of this review by the above-
referenced company demonstrates an absence of government control, both 
in law and in fact, with respect to its exports of the merchandise 
under review. Thus, we have determined that TMI is eligible to receive 
a separate rate.

Surrogate Country

    In the Preliminary Results, we treated the PRC as a NME country 
and, therefore, we calculated normal value in accordance with section 
773(c) of the Act. Also, we stated that we selected India as the 
appropriate surrogate country to use in this review for the following 
reasons: (1) it is a significant producer of merchandise comparable to 
subject merchandise; and (2) it is at a level of economic development 
comparable to the PRC, pursuant to section 773(c)(4) of the Act. See 
Preliminary Results, 73 FR at 12124. No interested party commented on 
our designation of the PRC as an NME country, nor the selection of 
India as the surrogate country. Therefore, for the final results of 
review, we have continued to treat the PRC as an NME country and have 
used the same surrogate country, India, for these final results.

Analysis of Comments Received

    All issues raised in the post-preliminary comments by parties in 
this review are addressed in the memorandum from Stephen J. Claeys, 
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration, to David M. 
Spooner, Assistant Secretary for Import Administration, ``Issues and 
Decision Memorandum for the Final Results of Magnesium Metal from the 
People's Republic of China,'' dated July 7, 2008 (``Issues and Decision 
Memorandum''), which is hereby adopted by this notice. A list of the 
issues that parties raised and to which we responded in the Issues and 
Decision Memorandum is attached to this notice as an appendix. The 
Issues and Decision Memorandum is a public document and is on file in 
the Central Records Unit (``CRU'') in room 1117 in the main Commerce 
Department building, and is also accessible on the Web at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/frn. The paper copy and electronic version of the 
memorandum are identical in content.

Changes Since the Preliminary Results

    Based on our analysis of comments received, we have made the 
following changes in the margin calculations for TMI: (1) To value the 
pure magnesium scrap input we used import values from the Indian Import 
Statistics (World Trade Atlas [supreg] online), which were published by 
the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, 
Ministry of Commerce of India, for pure magnesium listed under HTS 
8104.11, (2) To value factory overhead, depreciation, selling, general 
and administrative expenses (``SG&A'') and profit, the Department used 
audited financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2007, for an 
Indian producer of aluminum, Madras Aluminum Company Limited 
(``Malco''), (3) To value three components of flux: magnesium chloride, 
sodium chloride and potassium chloride, we used an average Indian 
domestic price based on April 2006-March 2007 data contained in 
Chemical Weekly, (4) For direct labor, indirect labor, and packing 
labor, consistent with 19 CFR 351.408(c)(3), the Department used the 
PRC regression-based wage rate as reported on Import Administration's 
website, Import Library, Expected Wages of Selected NME Countries, 
revised in May 2008, http://ia.ita.doc.gov/wages/04wages/04wages-010907.html. The source of these wage-rate data is the Yearbook of 
Labor Statistics 2006, ILO (Geneva: 2006), Chapter 5B Wages in 
Manufacturing. The years of the reported wage rates range from 2004 to 
2005. Because this regression-based wage rate does not separate the 
labor rates into different skill levels or types of labor, the 
Department has applied the same wage rate to all skill levels and types 
of labor reported by the respondents. See Factor Valuation Memorandum.

Final Results of the Review

    The Department has determined that the following weighted-average 
dumping margin exists for TMI for the period April 1, 2006, through 
March 31, 2007:

                      Magnesium Metal from the PRC
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                                                       Weighted-Average
                      Exporter                         Margin (Percent)
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Tianjin Magnesium International Co., Ltd............                0.00
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Assessment Rates

    The Department intends to issue assessment instructions to U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') 15 days after the date of 
publication of these final results of review. In accordance with 19 CFR 
351.212(b)(1), we have calculated importer or customer-specific 
assessment rates for merchandise subject to this review.

Cash Deposit Requirements

    The following cash deposit requirements will be effective upon 
publication of the final results of the administrative review for 
shipments of the subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after the publication date of the 
final results, as provided by section 751(a)(2)(C) of the Act: (1) for 
subject merchandise exported by TMI no cash deposit will be required; 
(2) for previously reviewed or investigated companies not listed above 
that have separate rates, the cash-deposit rate will continue to be the 
company-specific rate published for the most recent period; (3) for all 
other PRC exporters of subject merchandise, which have not been found 
to be entitled to a separate rate, the cash-deposit rate will be PRC-
wide entity rate of 141.49 percent; (4) for all non-PRC exporters of 
subject merchandise that have not received their own rate, the cash-
deposit rate will be the rate applicable to the PRC exporter that 
supplied that exporter. These deposit requirements, when imposed, shall 
remain in effect until further notice.

Notification to Importers

    This notice also serves as a final reminder to importers of their 
responsibility under
    19 CFR 351.402(f)(2) to file a certificate regarding the 
reimbursement of antidumping duties prior to liquidation of the 
relevant entries during this review period. Failure to comply with this 
requirement could result in the Secretary's presumption that 
reimbursement of antidumping duties occurred and the subsequent 
assessment of double antidumping duties.
    This notice also serves as a reminder to parties subject to 
administrative protective orders (``APOs'') of their responsibility 
concerning the return or destruction of proprietary information 
disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305, which continues 
to govern business proprietary information in this segment of the 
proceeding. Timely written notification of the return/destruction of 
APO

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materials or conversion to judicial protective order is hereby 
requested. Failure to comply with the regulations and terms of an APO 
is a violation that is subject to sanction.
    This administrative review and this notice are in accordance with 
sections 751(a)(1) and
    777(i) of the Act, 19 CFR 351.213, and 19 CFR 351.221(b)(4).

    Dated: July 7, 2008.
David M. Spooner,
Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.

APPENDIX

List of Comments and Issues in the Issues and Decision Memorandum

Comment 1: Whether the Department should assign a combination rate to 
TMI
Comment 2: Whether the Department should value the pure magnesium scrap 
input using the surrogate value for pure magnesium
Comment 3: Which Indian companies should be used to calculate the 
surrogate financial ratios
Comment 4: Whether to use Indian import statistics from World Trade 
Atlas or domestic prices from Chemical Weekly to value flux
Comment 5: Whether to use the data from India Bureau of Mines Yearbook 
to value Steam Coal
Comment 6: Whether the Department should use the updated China Wage 
rate
[FR Doc. E8-15964 Filed 7-11-08; 8:45 am]
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