[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 1, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10585-10587]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-04520]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-580-880]


Heavy Walled Rectangular Welded Carbon Steel Pipes and Tubes From 
the Republic of Korea: 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 heavy walled rectangular welded carbon steel pipes and 
tubes (HWR pipes and tubes) from the Republic of Korea (Korea) are 
being, or are 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, 
2014, through June 30, 2015. The estimated weighted-average dumping 
margins of sales at LTFV are shown in the ``Preliminary Determination'' 
section of this notice. Interested parties are invited to comment on 
this preliminary determination.

DATES: Effective: March 1, 2016.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Eastwood or Alice Maldonado, 
AD/CVD Operations, Office II, Enforcement and Compliance, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-
3874 or (202) 482-4682, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Department initiated this investigation on August 10, 2015.\1\ 
As explained in the memorandum from the Acting Assistant Secretary for 
Enforcement and Compliance, the Department has exercised its discretion 
to toll all administrative deadlines due to the recent closure of the 
Federal Government.\2\ All deadlines in this segment of the proceeding 
have been extended by four business days. The revised deadline for the 
preliminary determination of this investigation is now February 22, 
2016. For a complete description of the events that followed the 
initiation of this investigation, see the memorandum that is dated 
concurrently with this determination and hereby adopted by this 
notice.\3\
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    \1\ See Heavy Walled Rectangular Welded Carbon Steel Pipes and 
Tubes from the Republic of Korea, Mexico, and the Republic of 
Turkey: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations, 80 FR 
49202 (August 17, 2015).
    \2\ See Memorandum to the Record from Ron Lorentzen, Acting A/S 
for Enforcement & Compliance, regarding ``Tolling of Administrative 
Deadlines As a Result of the Government Closure During Snowstorm 
Jonas,'' dated January 27, 2016.
    \3\ See Memorandum from Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, to 
Paul Piquado, Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, 
entitled ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Determination in 
the Antidumping Duty Investigation of Heavy Walled Rectangular 
Welded Carbon Steel Pipes and Tubes from the Republic of Korea'' 
(Preliminary Decision Memorandum), dated concurrently with this 
notice.
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    The Preliminary 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 to all parties in the Central Records Unit, room B8024 of the main 
Department of Commerce building. In addition, a complete version of the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be found at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/. The signed Preliminary Decision Memorandum 
and the electronic version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum are 
identical in content.

Scope of the Investigation

    The product covered by this investigation is HWR pipes and tubes 
from Korea. For a full description of the scope of this investigation, 
see the ``Scope of the Investigation,'' in Appendix I of this notice. 
No party filed comments on the scope of this investigation.

Methodology

    The Department is conducting this investigation in accordance with 
section 731 of the Act. There are two mandatory respondents 
participating in this investigation: Dong-A Steel Company (DOSCO) and 
HiSteel Co., Ltd (HiSteel). Export price and, where appropriate, 
constructed export price for these companies are calculated in 
accordance with section 772 of the Act. Normal value (NV) is calculated 
in accordance with section 773 of the Act. For a full description of 
the methodology underlying our preliminary conclusions, see the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum.

[[Page 10586]]

All-Others Rate

    Consistent with sections 733(d)(1)(A)(ii) and 735(c)(5) of the Act, 
the Department also calculated an estimated 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 investigated, excluding any zero and de minimis 
margins, and any margins determined entirely under section 776 of the 
Act.
    In this investigation, we based our calculation of the all-others 
rate on the weighted-average of the margins calculated for DOSCO and 
HiSteel using publicly-ranged data. Because we cannot apply our normal 
methodology of calculating a weighted-average margin due to requests to 
protect business-proprietary information, we find this rate to be the 
best proxy of the actual weighted-average margin determined for these 
respondents.\4\ For further discussion of this calculation, see the 
memorandum entitled ``Heavy Walled Rectangular Welded Carbon Steel 
Pipes and Tubes from the Republic of Korea: Calculation of the 
Preliminary Margin for All Other Companies,'' dated concurrently with 
this notice.
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    \4\ See, e.g., Welded Line Pipe from the Republic of Turkey: 
Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 80 FR 61362, 
61363 (October 13, 2015).
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Preliminary Determination

    The Department preliminarily determines that the following 
weighted-average dumping margins exist:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Weighted-
                                                                average
                    Exporter/manufacturer                       dumping
                                                                margin
                                                               (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dong-A Steel Company........................................        2.53
HiSteel Co., Ltd............................................        3.81
All Others..................................................        3.31
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 733(d)(2) of the Act, we will direct 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation of all 
entries of subject merchandise from Korea, as described in Appendix I 
of this notice, which are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for 
consumption on or after the date of publication of this notice in the 
Federal Register.
    Pursuant to section 733(d) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.205(d), we 
will instruct CBP to require cash deposits \5\ equal to the weighted-
average amount by which the NV exceeds U.S. price, as indicated in the 
chart above, as follows: (1) The rate for the mandatory respondents 
listed above will be the respondent-specific rates we determined in 
this preliminary determination; (2) if the exporter is not a mandatory 
respondent identified above, but the producer is, the rate will be the 
specific rate established for the producer of the subject merchandise; 
and (3) the rate for all other producers or exporters will be the all 
others rate. These suspension of liquidation instructions will remain 
in effect until further notice.
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    \5\ 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).
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Disclosure

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

Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Act, we intend to verify 
information relied upon in making our final determination.

Public Comment

    Interested parties are invited to comment on this preliminary 
determination. 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.\6\ Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) 
and (d)(2), parties who submit case briefs or rebuttal briefs in this 
proceeding are encouraged to submit with each argument: (1) A statement 
of the issue; (2) a brief summary of the argument; and (3) a table of 
authorities.
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    \6\ See 19 CFR 351.309.
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    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), interested parties who wish to 
request a hearing must submit a written request to the Assistant 
Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce. 
All documents must be filed electronically using ACCESS. An 
electronically-filed request must be received successfully in its 
entirety by ACCESS by 5:00 p.m. Eastern 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 date to be determined. Parties should confirm by 
telephone the date, time, and location of the hearing two days before 
the scheduled date.

Postponement of Final Determination and Extension of Provisional 
Measures

    Section 735(a)(2) of the Act provides that a final determination 
may be postponed until not later than 135 days after the date of the 
publication of the preliminary determination if, in the event of an 
affirmative preliminary determination, a request for such postponement 
is made by exporters who account for a significant proportion of 
exports of the subject merchandise, or in the event of a negative 
preliminary determination, a request for such postponement is made by 
the petitioner. 19 CFR 351.210(e)(2) requires that requests by 
respondents for postponement of a final determination be accompanied by 
a request for extension of provisional measures from a four-month 
period to a period not more than six months in duration.
    Respondents DOSCO and HiSteel requested that, in the event of an 
affirmative preliminary determination in this investigation, the 
Department postpone the final determination by 60 days (i.e., to 135 
days after publication of the preliminary determination), and agreed to 
extend the application of the provisional measures prescribed under 
section 733(d) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.210(e)(2), from a four-month 
period to a period not to exceed six months.\7\ In addition, the 
petitioners \8\ also requested that, in the event of a negative 
preliminary determination, the Department postpone its final 
determination to 135 days after the date of publication of the 
preliminary determination.\9\
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    \7\ See letter from DOSCO entitled, ``Heavy Walled Rectangular 
Welded Carbon Steel Pipes and Tubes from the Republic of Korea: 
Request for Extension of Time for the Department's Final 
Determination,'' dated January 13, 2016; and letter from HiSteel 
entitled, ``Heavy Walled Rectangular Welded Carbon Steel Pipes and 
Tubes from the Republic of Korea: Request for the Department's Final 
Determination Extension of Deadline,'' dated February 8, 2016.
    \8\ The petitioners in this proceeding are Atlas Tube, a 
division of JMC Steel Group; Bull Moose Tube Company; EXLTUBE; 
Hannibal Industries, Inc.; Independence Tube Corporation; Maruichi 
American Corporation; Searing Industries; Southland Tube; and Vest, 
Inc.
    \9\ See letter from the petitioners entitled, ``Heavy Walled 
Rectangular Welded Carbon Steel Pipe and Tubes from Korea: Request 
to Postpone Final Determination,'' dated February 4, 2016.

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[[Page 10587]]

    In accordance with section 735(a)(2)(A) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.210(b)(2)(ii), because (1) our preliminary determination is 
affirmative; (2) the requesting exporters account for a significant 
proportion of exports of the subject merchandise; and (3) no compelling 
reasons for denial exist, we are postponing the final determination 
until no later than 135 days after the publication of this notice in 
the Federal Register and extending the provisional measures from a 
four-month period to a period not greater than six months. Accordingly, 
we will issue 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.\10\
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    \10\ See 19 CFR 351.210(b)(2) and (e).
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International Trade Commission (ITC) Notification

    In accordance with section 733(f) of the Act, we are notifying the 
ITC of our affirmative preliminary determination of sales at LTFV. If 
our final determination is affirmative, the ITC will determine before 
the later of 120 days after the date of this preliminary determination 
or 45 days after our final determination whether these imports are 
materially injuring, or threaten material injury to, the U.S. industry.
    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).

     Dated: February 22, 2016.
Paul Piquado,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I

Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by this investigation are certain heavy 
walled rectangular welded steel pipes and tubes of rectangular 
(including square) cross section, having a nominal wall thickness of 
not less than 4 mm. The merchandise includes, but is not limited to, 
the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) A-500, grade B 
specifications, or comparable domestic or foreign specifications.
    Included products are those 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 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
 2.0 percent of nickel, or
 0.30 percent of tungsten, 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.

    The subject merchandise is currently provided for in item 
7306.61.1000 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTSUS). Subject merchandise may also enter under HTSUS 
7306.61.3000. While the HTSUS subheadings and ASTM specification are 
provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written 
description of the scope of this investigation is dispositive.

Appendix II

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. Discussion of Methodology
    a. Determination of the Comparison Method
    b. Results of the Differential Pricing Analysis
7. Date of Sale
8. Product Comparisons
9. Export Price/Constructed Export Price
10. Normal Value
    a. Home Market Viability
    b. Affiliated-Party Transactions and Arm's Length Test
    c. Level of Trade
    d. Cost of Production Analysis
    1. Calculation of COP
    2. Test of Comparison Market Sales Prices
    3. Results of the COP Test
    e. Calculation of NV Based on Comparison Market Prices
11. Currency Conversion
12. Conclusion

[FR Doc. 2016-04520 Filed 2-29-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P