[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 44 (Monday, March 7, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11747-11751]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-05005]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-588-873]


Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Flat Products From Japan: Affirmative 
Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and 
Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (the ``Department'') preliminarily 
determines that certain cold-rolled steel flat products (``cold-rolled 
steel'') from Japan 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. JFE 
Steel Corporation (``JFE'') and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal 
Corporation (``NSSMC'') are the mandatory respondents in this 
investigation. 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 7, 2016.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Trisha Tran, 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) 482-4852.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    The Department published the notice of initiation of this 
investigation on August 24, 2015.\1\ For a complete

[[Page 11748]]

description of the events that followed the initiation of this 
investigation, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum that is dated 
concurrently with this determination and is hereby adopted by this 
notice.\2\ A list of topics included in the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum is included as Appendix II to this notice. 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.
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    \1\ See Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Flat Products From Brazil, the 
People's Republic of China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the 
Netherlands, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom: 
Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations, 80 FR 51198 
(August 24, 2015) (``Initiation Notice'').
    \2\ See Memorandum from Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, to 
Paul Piquado, Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance 
``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Determination of the 
Antidumping Duty Investigation of Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Flat 
Products from Japan'' (``Preliminary Decision Memorandum''), dated 
concurrently with this notice.
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    On November 30, 2015, the Department published notice of the 50-day 
postponement for the preliminary determination in this investigation, 
in accordance with section 733(c)(1)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.205(f)(1).\3\ In addition, the Department has exercised its 
discretion to toll all administrative deadlines due to the recent 
closure of the Federal Government because of Snowstorm ``Jonas''. Thus, 
all of the deadlines in this segment of the proceeding have been 
extended by four business days. The revised deadline for the 
preliminary determination is now February 29, 2016.\4\
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    \3\ See Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Flat Products From Brazil, the 
People's Republic of China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the 
Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom: Postponement of 
Preliminary Determinations of Antidumping Duty Investigations, 80 FR 
74764 (November 30, 2015).
    \4\ See Memorandum to the Record from Ronald Lorentzen, Acting 
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement & Compliance, regarding 
``Tolling of Administrative Deadlines as a Result of the Government 
Closure during Snowstorm Jonas,'' dated January 27, 2016.
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Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by this investigation are certain cold-rolled 
(cold-reduced), flat-rolled steel products, whether or not annealed, 
painted, varnished, or coated with plastics or other non-metallic 
substances. For a full description of the scope of this investigation, 
see the ``Scope of the Investigation,'' in Appendix I.

Scope Comments

    In accordance with the preamble to the Department's regulations,\5\ 
the Initiation Notice set aside a period of time for parties to raise 
issues regarding product coverage (i.e., ``scope'').\6\ Certain 
interested parties commented on the scope of the investigation, as it 
appeared in the Initiation Notice, as well as on additional language 
proposed by the Department. For a summary of the product coverage 
comments and rebuttal responses submitted to the record, and an 
accompanying discussion and analysis of all comments timely received, 
see the Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum.\7\ In this 
investigation, the Department is preliminarily modifying the scope 
language as it appeared in the Initiation Notice.
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    \5\ See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, 62 FR 27296, 
27323 (May 19, 1997).
    \6\ See Initiation Notice, 80 FR at 51199.
    \7\ See Memorandum to Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, 
``Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Products From Brazil, the People's 
Republic of China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian 
Federation, and the United Kingdom: Scope Comments Decision 
Memorandum for the Preliminary Determinations,'' dated concurrently 
with this preliminary determination; see also Memorandum to 
Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Antidumping Duty 
Operations, ``Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Products From Japan: 
Additional Scope Comments and Decision Memorandum for the 
Preliminary Determination,'' dated concurrently with this 
preliminary determination (collectively, Preliminary Scope Decision 
Memorandum).
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Methodology

    The Department is conducting this investigation in accordance with 
section 731 of the Act. Pursuant to section 776(a) of the Act, the 
Department preliminarily relied upon facts otherwise available to 
assign estimated weighted-average dumping margins to the mandatory 
respondents, JFE and NSSMC, because JFE and NSSMC each informed the 
Department that they would not respond to the Department's AD 
questionnaire and, therefore, would not participate in this 
investigation as mandatory respondents.\8\ Therefore, the Department is 
preliminarily applying adverse facts available to JFE and NSSMC, in 
accordance with section 776(b) of Act. See Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum for a complete explanation of the methodology and analysis 
underlying our preliminary application of adverse facts available.
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    \8\ See Letter from JFE, ``Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Flat 
Products from Japan: Advisement of Non-Participation in 
Investigation,'' dated November 25, 2015; see also Letter from 
NSSMC, ``Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Flat Products from Japan: NSSMC's 
Response to Issuance of the Antidumping Duty Questionnaire,'' dated 
December 1, 2015.
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    After JFE and NSSMC informed the Department that they would not 
participate in this investigation as mandatory respondents, we selected 
Hitachi Metals Limited (``Hitachi'') as a voluntary respondent on 
December 10, 2015.\9\ On February 22, 2016, Petitioners \10\ provided a 
revised scope clarifying Petitioners' intent with regard to the scope 
of the investigation to exclude ultra-tempered automotive steel from 
the scope of the investigation and to limit application of this scope 
exclusion only to this cold-rolled steel from Japan investigation, 
which we have accepted for this preliminary determination.\11\ Because 
all of Hitachi's reported home market sales, U.S. sales, and production 
costs were comprised entirely of ultra-tempered automotive steel strip 
that meets the specification of the ultra-tempered steel scope 
exclusion, Hitachi does not have any sales during the POI to 
investigate and calculate a margin.\12\ See Preliminary Scope Decision 
Memoranda for a complete discussion.
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    \9\ See Memorandum to Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, 
``Antidumping Duty Investigation of Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Flat 
Products from Japan: Whether to Selection Additional Mandatory and/
or Voluntary Respondents,'' dated December 10, 2015.
    \10\ United States Steel Corporation, AK Steel Corporation, 
ArcelorMittal USA LLC, Nucor Corporation, Steel Dynamics, Inc., and 
United States Steel Corporation.
    \11\ See Letter from Petitioners, ``Certain Cold-Rolled Steel 
Flat Products from Japan: Response to Additional Information Request 
Regarding Scope,'' dated February 22, 2016.
    \12\ See Preliminary Scope Decision Memoranda. See also Letter 
from Hitachi Metals, ``Certain Cold-Rolled Steel Flat Products from 
Japan: Hitachi Metals' Pre-Preliminary Determination Comments,'' 
dated February 12, 2016.
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Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances

    On October 30, 2015, Petitioners filed timely critical 
circumstances allegations, pursuant to section 733(e)(1) of the Act and 
19 CFR 351.206(c)(1), alleging that critical circumstances exist with 
respect to imports of the merchandise under consideration from 
Japan.\13\ In accordance with 19 CFR 351.206(c)(2)(i), when a critical 
circumstances allegation is submitted

[[Page 11749]]

more than 20 days before the scheduled date of the preliminary 
determination, the Department will issue a preliminary finding whether 
there is a reasonable basis to believe or suspect that critical 
circumstances exist no later than the date of the preliminary 
determination. Based on our analyses, in accordance with section 733(e) 
of the Act and 19 CFR 351.206, we preliminarily find that critical 
circumstances exist for each of the mandatory respondents in the 
investigation. That is, with respect to these companies, we 
preliminarily determine that (1) importers of merchandise knew or 
should have known that the exporter was selling the merchandise under 
consideration at LTFV and that there was likely to be material injury 
in accordance with section 733(e)(1)(A) of the Act; and (2) imports of 
subject merchandise have been massive over a relatively short period in 
accordance with section 733(e)(1)(B) of the Act. With respect to all 
other producers and exporters subject to the investigation concerning 
cold-rolled steel from Japan, we preliminarily do not find that 
critical circumstances exist. For a full description of the methodology 
and results of our critical circumstances analysis, see the Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum.
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    \13\ See Letter from Petitioners, ``Certain Cold-Rolled Steel 
Flat Products From The People's Republic of China, Japan, And the 
Russian Federation--Petitioners' Critical Circumstances 
Allegation,'' dated October 30, 2015.
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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 rates that are 
zero, de minimis, or determined entirely under section 776 of the Act. 
We cannot apply the methodology described in section 735(c)(5)(A) of 
the Act to calculate the ``all-others'' rate, as all of the margins in 
this preliminary determination were calculated under section 776 of the 
Act. In cases where no weighted-average dumping margins besides zero, 
de minimis, or those determined entirely under section 776 of the Act 
have been established for individually estimated entities, in 
accordance with section 735(c)(5)(B) of the Act, the Department 
averages the margins calculated by the Petitioners in the Petition and 
applies the result to ``all-other'' entities not individually examined. 
In this case, however, Petitioners calculated only one margin in the 
Petition. Therefore, we assigned as the ``all-others'' rate the only 
margin in the Petition, which is 71.35 percent.\14\
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    \14\ See Certain Oil Country Tubular Goods From Thailand: 
Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, and 
Postponement of Final Determination, 79 FR 10487 (February 25, 
2014), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum, unchanged 
in Certain Oil Country Tubular Goods From India, the Republic of 
Korea, Taiwan, the Republic of Turkey, and the Socialist Republic of 
Vietnam: Antidumping Duty Orders; and Certain Oil Country Tubular 
Goods From the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Amended Final 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 79 FR 53691 
(September 10, 2014).
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Preliminary Determination

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Weighted-
                                                                average
                      Exporter/producer                         margin
                                                               (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JFE Steel Corporation.......................................       71.35
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation...................       71.35
All-Others..................................................       71.35
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In addition, the Department preliminarily determines that voluntary 
respondent Hitachi Metals Limited has no sales of subject merchandise 
during to POI to examine.

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 cold-rolled steel from Japan, as described in the scope 
of the investigation, that is entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for 
consumption on or after the date of publication of this notice in the 
Federal Register.
    Section 733(e)(2) of the Act provides that, given an affirmative 
determination of critical circumstances, any suspension of liquidation 
shall apply to unliquidated entries of merchandise entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the later of (a) 
the date which is 90 days before the date on which the suspension of 
liquidation was first ordered, or (b) the date on which notice of 
initiation of the investigation was published. Because we have 
preliminarily found that critical circumstances exist with regard to 
imports exported by the mandatory respondents JFE and NSSMC, we will 
instruct CBP to suspend liquidation of all entries of cold-rolled steel 
from Japan, as described in the scope of the investigation, from the 
mandatory respondents that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, 
for consumption on or after the date that is 90 days prior to the date 
on which suspension of liquidation is first ordered (e.g., the date of 
publication of this notice). At such time, we will also instruct CBP, 
pursuant to section 733 (d)(1)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.205(d), to 
require a cash deposit equal to the margins indicated in the chart 
above.\15\ The suspension of liquidation will remain in effect until 
further notice.
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    \15\ 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 and Public Comment

    We will disclose the calculations that we performed in this 
investigation to interested parties in this proceeding within five days 
after the date of public announcement of the preliminary determination 
in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b). Interested parties are invited to 
comment on this preliminary determination. Interested parties may 
submit case briefs to the Department no later than 30 days after the 
publication of this preliminary determination. Rebuttal briefs, the 
content of which is limited to the issues raised in the case briefs, 
must be filed within five days of the deadline date for the submission 
of case briefs.\16\ 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. All documents must be filed electronically using ACCESS.
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    \16\ 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 for a hearing to the 
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of 
Commerce. An electronically-filed request for a hearing 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.\17\ 
Hearing 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,

[[Page 11750]]

time, and location of the hearing two days before the scheduled date.
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    \17\ See 19 CFR 351.310(c).
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Verification

    Because none of the mandatory respondents in this investigation 
provided information requested by the Department and the Department 
preliminarily determines each of the mandatory respondents to have been 
uncooperative, verification will not be conducted.

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 29, 2016.
Paul Piquado,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I--Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by this investigation are certain cold-
rolled (cold reduced), flat-rolled steel products, whether or not 
annealed, painted, varnished, or coated with plastics or other non-
metallic substances. The products covered do not include those that 
are clad, plated, or coated with metal. The products covered include 
coils that have a width or other lateral measurement (``width'') of 
12.7 mm or greater, regardless of form of coil (e.g., in 
successively superimposed layers, spirally oscillating, etc.). The 
products covered also include products not in coils (e.g., in 
straight lengths) of a thickness less than 4.75 mm and a width that 
is 12.7 mm or greater and that measures at least 10 times the 
thickness. The products covered also include products not in coils 
(e.g., in straight lengths) of a thickness of 4.75 mm or more and a 
width exceeding 150 mm and measuring at least twice the thickness. 
The products described above may be rectangular, square, circular, 
or other shape and include products of either rectangular or non-
rectangular cross section where such cross-section is achieved 
subsequent to the rolling process, i.e., products which have been 
``worked after rolling'' (e.g., products which have been beveled or 
rounded at the edges). For purposes of the width and thickness 
requirements referenced above:
    (1) Where the nominal and actual measurements vary, a product is 
within the scope if application of either the nominal or actual 
measurement would place it within the scope based on the definitions 
set forth above, and
    (2) where the width and thickness vary for a specific product 
(e.g., the thickness of certain products with non-rectangular cross-
section, the width of certain products with non-rectangular shape, 
etc.), the measurement at its greatest width or thickness applies.
    Steel products included in the scope of these investigations are 
products 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 listed 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
 2.00 percent of nickel, or
 0.30 percent of tungsten (also called wolfram), 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

    Unless specifically excluded, products are included in this 
scope regardless of levels of boron and titanium.
    For example, specifically included in this scope are vacuum 
degassed, fully stabilized (commonly referred to as interstitial-
free (IF)) steels, high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels, motor 
lamination steels, Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS), and Ultra 
High Strength Steels (UHSS). IF steels are recognized as low carbon 
steels with micro-alloying levels of elements such as titanium and/
or niobium added to stabilize carbon and nitrogen elements. HSLA 
steels are recognized as steels with micro-alloying levels of 
elements such as chromium, copper, niobium, titanium, vanadium, and 
molybdenum. Motor lamination steels contain micro-alloying levels of 
elements such as silicon and aluminum. AHSS and UHSS are considered 
high tensile strength and high elongation steels, although AI-ISS 
and UHSS are covered whether or not they are high tensile strength 
or high elongation steels.
    Subject merchandise includes cold-rolled steel that has been 
further processed in a third country, including but not limited to 
annealing, tempering, painting, varnishing, trimming, cutting, 
punching, and/or slitting, or any other processing that would not 
otherwise remove the merchandise from the scope of the investigation 
if performed in the country of manufacture of the cold-rolled steel.
    All products that meet the written physical description, and in 
which the chemistry quantities do not exceed any one of the noted 
element levels listed above, are within the scope of this 
investigation unless specifically excluded. The following products 
are outside of and/or specifically excluded from the scope of this 
investigation:

 Ball bearing steels; \18\
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    \18\ Ball bearing steels are defined as steels which contain, in 
addition to iron, each of the following elements by weight in the 
amount specified: (i) Not less than 0.95 nor more than 1.13 percent 
of carbon; (ii) not less than 0.22 nor more than 0.48 percent of 
manganese; (iii) none, or not more than 0.03 percent of sulfur; (iv) 
none, or not more than 0.03 percent of phosphorus; (v) not less than 
0.18 nor more than 0.37 percent of silicon; (vi) not less than 1.25 
nor more than 1.65 percent of chromium; (vii) none, or not more than 
0.28 percent of nickel; (viii) none, or not more than 0.38 percent 
of copper; and (ix) none, or not more than 0.09 percent of 
molybdenum.
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 Tool steels; \19\
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    \19\ Tool steels are defined as steels which contain the 
following combinations of elements in the quantity by weight 
respectively indicated: (i) More than 1.2 percent carbon and more 
than 10.5 percent chromium; or (ii) not less than 0.3 percent carbon 
and 1.25 percent or more but less than 10.5 percent chromium; or 
(iii) not less than 0.85 percent carbon and 1 percent to 1.8 
percent, inclusive, manganese; or (iv) 0.9 percent to 1.2 percent, 
inclusive, chromium and 0.9 percent to 1.4 percent, inclusive, 
molybdenum; or (v) not less than 0.5 percent carbon and not less 
than 3.5 percent molybdenum; or (vi) not less than 0.5 percent 
carbon and not less than 5.5 percent tungsten.
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 Silico-manganese steel \20\
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    \20\ Silico-manganese steel is defined as steels containing by 
weight: (i) Not more than 0.7 percent of carbon; (ii) 0.5 percent or 
more but not more than 1.9 percent of manganese, and (iii) 0.6 
percent or more but not more than 2.3 percent of silicon.
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 Grain-oriented electrical steels (``GOES'') as defined in 
the final determination of the U.S. Department of Commerce in Grain-
Oriented Electrical Steel From Germany, Japan, and Poland.\21\
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    \21\ See Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel From Germany, Japan, 
and Poland: Final Determinations of Sales at Less Than Fair Value 
and Certain Final Affirmative Determination of Critical 
Circumstances, 79 FR 42,501, 42,503 (Dep't of Commerce, July 22, 
2014) (``Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel From Germany, Japan, and 
Poland''). This determination defines grain-oriented electrical 
steel as ``a flat-rolled alloy steel product containing by weight at 
least 0.6 percent but not more than 6 percent of silicon, not more 
than 0.08 percent of carbon, not more than 1.0 percent of aluminum, 
and no other element in an amount that would give the steel the 
characteristics of another alloy steel, in coils or in straight 
lengths.''
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 Non-Oriented Electrical Steels (``NOES''), as defined in 
the antidumping orders issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 
Non-Oriented Electrical Steel From the People's Republic of China, 
Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and Taiwan.\22\
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    \22\ See Non-Oriented Electrical Steel From the People's 
Republic of China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, 
and Taiwan: Antidumping Duty Orders, 79 FR 71,741, 71,741-42 (Dep't 
of Commerce, Dec. 3, 2014) (``Non-Oriented Electrical Steel From the 
People's Republic of China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, 
Sweden, and Taiwan''). The orders define NOES as ``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.''

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[[Page 11751]]

    Also excluded from the scope of this investigation is ultra-
tempered automotive steel, which is hardened, tempered, surface 
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polished, and meets the following specifications:

 Thickness: less than or equal to 1.0 mm;
 Width: less than or equal to 330 mm;
 Chemical composition:


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Element                    C              Si              Mn                P                S
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Weight %.....................       0.90-1.05       0.15-0.35       0.30-0.50  Less than or      Less than or
                                                                                equal to 0.03.    equal to
                                                                                                  0.006.
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 Physical properties:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             Flatness of less than 0.2%
    Width less than or equal to 150 mm         of nominal strip width
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Width of 150 to 330 mm....................  Flatness of less than 5 mm
                                             of nominal strip width.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Microstructure: Completely free from decarburization. 
Carbides are spheroidal and fine within 1% to 4% (area percentage) 
and are undissolved in the uniform tempered martensite;
 Surface roughness: less than or equal to 0.80 [mu]m Rz;
 Non-metallic inclusion:
[ssquf] Sulfide inclusion less than or equal to 0.04% (area 
percentage)
[ssquf] Oxide inclusion less than or equal to 0.05% (area 
percentage); and
[ssquf] The mill test certificate must demonstrate that the steel is 
proprietary grade ``PK'' and specify the following:
[ssquf] The exact tensile strength, which must be greater than or 
equal to 1600 N/mm\2\;
[ssquf] The exact hardness, which must be greater than or equal to 
465 Vickers hardness number;
[ssquf] The exact elongation, which must be between 2.5% and 9.5%; 
and
[ssquf] Certified as having residual compressive stress within a 
range of 100 to 400 N/mm\2\.

    The products subject to this investigation are currently 
classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTSUS) under item numbers: 7209.15.0000, 7209.16.0030, 
7209.16.0060, 7209.16.0070, 7209.16.0091, 7209.17.0030, 
7209.17.0060, 7209.17.0070, 7209.17.0091, 7209.18.1530, 
7209.18.1560, 7209.18.2510, 7209.18.2520, 7209.18.2580, 
7209.18.6020, 7209.18.6090, 7209.25.0000, 7209.26.0000, 
7209.27.0000, 7209.28.0000, 7209.90.0000, 7210.70.3000, 
7211.23.1500, 7211.23.2000, 7211.23.3000, 7211.23.4500, 
7211.23.6030, 7211.23.6060, 7211.23.6090, 7211.29.2030, 
7211.29.2090, 7211.29.4500, 7211.29.6030, 7211.29.6080, 
7211.90.0000, 7212.40.1000, 7212.40.5000, 7225.50.6000, 
7225.50.8080, 7225.99.0090, 7226.92.5000, 7226.92.7050, and 
7226.92.8050. The products subject to the investigation may also 
enter under the following HTSUS numbers: 7210.90.9000, 7212.50.0000, 
7215.10.0010, 7215.10.0080, 7215.50.0016, 7215.50.0018, 
7215.50.0020, 7215.50.0061, 7215.50.0063, 7215.50.0065, 
7215.50.0090, 7215.90.5000, 7217.10.1000, 7217.10.2000, 
7217.10.3000, 7217.10.7000, 7217.90.1000, 7217.90.5030, 
7217.90.5060, 7217.90.5090, 7225.19.0000, 7226.19.1000, 
7226.19.9000, 7226.99.0180, 7228.50.5015, 7228.50.5040, 
7228.50.5070, 7228.60.8000, and 7229.90.1000.
    The HTSUS subheadings above are provided for convenience and 
U.S. Customs purposes only. The written description of the scope of 
the investigation is dispositive.

Appendix II--List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Period of Investigation
IV. Scope of the Investigation
V. Respondent Selection
VI. Application of Facts Available and All-Others Rate
VII. Preliminary Determination of Critical Circumstances
VIII. Verification
IX. Conclusion

[FR Doc. 2016-05005 Filed 3-4-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P