[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 93 (Monday, May 14, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22246-22249]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-10201]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-523-808]


Certain Steel Nails From the Sultanate of Oman: Preliminary 
Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review and Partial 
Rescission of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2016-2017

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines 
that certain steel nails (nails) from the Sultanate of Oman (Oman) are 
being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than 
normal value during the period of review (POR) of July 1, 2016, through 
June 30, 2017. Additionally, we are rescinding the review with respect 
to ten companies.

DATES: Applicable May 14, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joseph Traw or Thomas Martin, AD/CVD 
Operations, Office IV, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-6079 or (202) 482-3936, 
respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION On July 13, 2015, Commerce published in the 
Federal Register an antidumping (AD) order on nails from Oman.\1\ On 
July 3, 2017, Commerce notified interested parties of the opportunity 
to request an administrative review of orders, findings, or suspended 
investigations with anniversaries in July 2017, including the AD Order 
on nails from Oman. Commerce received timely requests from Oman 
Fasteners LLC (Oman Fasteners) and Mid Continent Steel & Wire, Inc. 
(the petitioner) to conduct an administrative review of certain 
exporters covering the POR. On September 13, 2017, Commerce published a 
notice initiating an AD administrative review of nails from Oman 
covering 13 companies for the POR.\2\
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    \1\ See Certain Steel Nails from the Republic of Korea, 
Malaysia, the Sultanate of Oman, Taiwan, and the Socialist Republic 
of Vietnam: Antidumping Duty Orders, 80 FR 39994 (July 13, 2015) 
(Order).
    \2\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 82 FR 42974 (September 13, 2017) (Initiation 
Notice).
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    In the Initiation Notice, Commerce indicated that, in the event 
that we would limit the respondents selected for individual examination 
in accordance with section 777A(c)(2) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as 
amended (the Act), we would select mandatory respondents for individual 
examination based upon U.S. Customers and Border Protection (CBP) entry 
data.\3\ On September 22, 2017, we released CBP entry data under 
Administrative Protective Order (APO) to all parties with access to 
information protected by APO. Subsequently, we issued the AD 
questionnaire to Oman Fasteners and Overseas International Steel 
Industry LLC and Overseas Distribution Services Inc. (OISI/ODS),\4\ the 
two mandatory respondents.\5\ On November 9, 2017, the petitioner 
timely withdrew its request for administrative review, pursuant to 19 
CFR 351.213(d)(1), of all the producers and exporters except for Oman 
Fasteners, and OISI/ODS.
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    \3\ See Initiation Notice, 82 FR at 42974.
    \4\ See Letter from the petitioner, ``Certain Steel Nails from 
Oman: Withdrawal of Request for Administrative Review, dated 
November 9, 2017. Commerce determined that Overseas International 
Steel Industry LLC and Overseas Distribution Services Inc. should be 
a collapsed entity in the previous administrative review. See 
Certain Steel Nails from the Sultanate of Oman: Final Results of 
Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2014-2016, 83 FR 4030 
(January 29, 2018).
    \5\ See Commerce's Letters to Oman Fasteners and OISI/ODS dated 
September 28, 2017.
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    Commerce exercised its discretion to toll all deadlines affected by 
the closure of the Federal Government from January 20 through 22, 
2018.\6\ Accordingly, the revised deadline for the preliminary 
determination of this investigation became April 7, 2018.\7\ On March 
14, 2018, Commerce extended the preliminary results in this review to 
no later than May 7, 2018.\8\ Commerce received comments for the 
preliminary determination from the petitioner \9\ and Oman Fasteners on 
April 18, 2018.\10\
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    \6\ See Memorandum, ``Deadlines Affected by the Shutdown of the 
Federal Government,'' dated January 23, 2018. All deadlines in this 
segment of the proceeding have been extended by 3 days.
    \7\ Id.
    \8\ See Memorandum, ``Certain Steel Nails from Oman: Extension 
of Deadline for Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty 
Administrative Review,'' dated March 14, 2018.
    \9\ See Petitioner's Letter, ``Certain Steel Nails from Oman: 
Pre-Preliminary Comments,'' dated April 18, 2018.
    \10\ See Oman Fasteners' Letter, ``Certain Steel Nails from 
Oman; Antidumping Second Review: Pre-Preliminary Comments,'' dated 
April 18, 2018.
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Partial Rescission of Administrative Review

    Commerce received timely requests to conduct an administrative 
review of certain exporters covering the POR. Because the petitioner 
timely withdrew its requests for review of all of the companies listed 
in the Initiation Notice, with the exception of Oman Fasteners and 
OISI/ODS, we are

[[Page 22247]]

rescinding the administrative review with respect to those 10 
companies, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(1).\11\ Accordingly, the 
remaining companies subject to the instant review are Oman Fasteners 
and OISI/ODS.
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    \11\ Airlift Trans Oceanic Pvt. Ltd., Astrotech Steels Private 
Ltd, C.H. Robinson, Consolidated Shipping Services LLC, Dahnay 
Logistics Private Ltd., Flyjac Logistics Private Ltd., Intermarket 
(India) Private Ltd., Noble Shipping Private Ltd., Panalpina World 
Transport (I) Pvt. Ltd., and Swift Freight India Private Ltd.
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Scope of the Order

    The merchandise covered by this Order is nails having a nominal 
shaft length not exceeding 12 inches.\12\ Merchandise covered by the 
Order is currently classified under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of 
the United States (HTSUS) subheadings 7317.00.55.02, 7317.00.55.03, 
7317.00.55.05, 7317.00.55.07, 7317.00.55.08, 7317.00.55.11, 
7317.00.55.18, 7317.00.55.19, 7317.00.55.20, 7317.00.55.30, 
7317.00.55.40, 7317.00.55.50, 7317.00.55.60, 7317.00.55.70, 
7317.00.55.80, 7317.00.55.90, 7317.00.65.30, 7317.00.65.60 and 
7317.00.75.00. Nails subject to this Order also may be classified under 
HTSUS subheadings 7907.00.60.00, 8206.00.00.00 or other HTSUS 
subheadings. While the HTSUS subheadings are provided for convenience 
and customs purposes, the written description of the scope of this 
Order is dispositive. For a complete description of the scope of the 
Order, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\13\
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    \12\ The shaft length of certain steel nails with flat heads or 
parallel shoulders under the head shall be measured from under the 
head or shoulder to the tip of the point. The shaft length of all 
other certain steel nails shall be measured overall.
    \13\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for Preliminary 
Results of the 2014-2016 Antidumping Duty Administrative Review of 
Certain Steel Nails from the Sultanate of Oman,'' dated concurrently 
with, and hereby adopted by this notice (Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum).
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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 http://access.trade.gov and 
available 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 accessed directly on the 
internet at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/. The signed and 
electronic versions of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum are 
identical in content.

Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this review in accordance with section 
751(a) of the Act. Export price and constructed export price are 
calculated in accordance with section 772 of the Act. Normal value is 
calculated in accordance with section 773 of the Act.
    For a full description of the methodology underlying our 
conclusions, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\14\ A list of 
topics included in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is included as 
an Appendix to this notice.
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    \14\ See Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
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Adverse Facts Available

    Section 776(a) of the Act provides that Commerce shall, subject to 
section 782(d) of the Act, use ``facts otherwise available'' if: (1) 
Necessary information is not on the record; or (2) an interested party 
or any other person: (A) Withholds information that has been requested; 
(B) fails to provide information within the deadlines established, or 
in the form and manner requested by Commerce, subject to subsections 
(c)(1) and (e) of section 782 of the Act; (C) significantly impedes a 
proceeding; or (D) provides information that cannot be verified as 
provided by section 782(i) of the Act.
    Section 776(b) of the Act provides that Commerce may use an adverse 
inference in applying the facts otherwise available when a party fails 
to cooperate by not acting to the best of its ability to comply with a 
request for information (i.e., adverse facts available, or AFA). In so 
doing, and under the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (TPEA), 
Commerce is not required to determine, or make any adjustments to, a 
weighted-average dumping margin based on any assumptions about 
information an interested party would have provided if the interested 
party had complied with the request for information. Further, section 
776(b)(2) of the Act states that an adverse inference may include 
reliance on information derived from the petition, the final 
determination from the less than fair value investigation, a previous 
administrative review, or other information placed on the record.
    Section 776(c) of the Act provides that, in general, when Commerce 
relies on secondary information rather than on information obtained in 
the course of an investigation, it shall, to the extent practicable, 
corroborate that information from independent sources that are 
reasonably at its disposal. Secondary information is defined as 
information derived from the petition that gave rise to the 
investigation, the final determination concerning the subject 
merchandise, or any previous review under section 751 of the Act 
concerning the subject merchandise. However, Commerce is not required 
to corroborate any dumping margin applied in a separate segment of the 
same proceeding.
    Under section 776(d) of the Act, Commerce may use any dumping 
margin from any segment of a proceeding under an AD order when applying 
an adverse inference, including the highest of such margins. The TPEA 
also makes clear that when selecting an AFA margin, Commerce is not 
required to estimate what the dumping margin would have been if the 
interested party failing to cooperate had cooperated or to demonstrate 
that the dumping margin reflects an ``alleged commercial reality'' of 
the interested party.
    In accordance with section 776 of the Act, Commerce preliminarily 
determines that the application of facts available is warranted for the 
collapsed entity OISI/ODS because OISI/ODS did not respond to the 
antidumping questionnaire and, thus, has not provided the necessary 
information on the record, pursuant to section 776(a)(1) of the Act. 
Specifically, OISI/ODS has withheld requested information, failed to 
provide such information in the form and manner required, and impeded 
this review, thus, the use of facts available for the preliminary 
results is warranted, pursuant to sections 776(a)(2)(A), (B), and (C) 
of the Act. For a full discussion, see the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum.
    Furthermore, by withholding requested information, failing to 
provide such information in the manner and form required, and impeding 
this review, OISI/ODS failed to cooperate with Commerce by not acting 
to the best of its ability to comply with a request for information by 
Commerce, pursuant to section 776(b)(1) of the Act. Accordingly, we 
preliminarily determine to apply AFA to OISI/ODS, in accordance with 
sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.308. Furthermore, as 
we do not have information on the record to calculate a margin for 
OISI/ODS, we have calculated its margin based on total AFA. 
Specifically, we are applying as AFA, a margin of 154.33 percent, which 
was alleged by the petitioner in the

[[Page 22248]]

petition filed in the investigation,\15\ and which we applied to OISI/
ODS in the first administrative review in this proceeding. Because we 
applied this margin to OISI/ODS in the prior review, it is unnecessary 
to corroborate this margin pursuant to section 776(c)(2) of the Act. 
For further discussion, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
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    \15\ See Certain Steel Nails from India, the Republic of Korea, 
Malaysia, the Sultanate of Oman, Taiwan, the Republic of Turkey, and 
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-
Value Investigations, 79 FR 36019, 36023-36024 (June 25, 2014).
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Duty Absorption

    On October 10, 2017, the petitioner requested that Commerce conduct 
a duty absorption review with respect to all producers/exporters 
subject to this review.\16\ We have determined not to examine duty 
absorption with regard to Oman Fasteners and the ten companies for 
which we are rescinding the review, but we have found that duty 
absorption exists with respect to OISI/ODS based on AFA.\17\
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    \16\ See Letter from the petitioner, ``Certain Steel Nails from 
Oman: Request for Duty Absorption Inquiry,'' dated October 10, 2017.
    \17\ See Preliminary Decision Memorandum at 17.
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Preliminary Results of Review

    As a result of this review, we preliminarily determine the 
following weighted-average dumping margins for the period July 1, 2016, 
through June 30, 2017:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Weighted-
                                                                average
                      Exporter/producer                         dumping
                                                                margins
                                                               (percent)
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Oman Fasteners LLC..........................................        0.00
Overseas International Steel Industry LLC/Overseas                154.33
 Distribution Services Inc..................................
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Disclosure and Public Comment

    Commerce intends to disclose the calculations used in our analysis 
to interested parties in this review within five days of the date of 
publication of this notice in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b). 
Interested parties are invited to comment on the preliminary results of 
this review. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c)(1)(ii), interested parties 
may submit case briefs no later than 30 days after the date of 
publication of this notice. Rebuttal briefs, limited to issues raised 
in the case briefs, may be filed no later than five days after the time 
limit for filing case briefs.\18\ Parties who submit case briefs or 
rebuttal briefs in this proceeding are requested to submit with each 
brief: (1) A statement of the issue, (2) a brief summary of the 
argument, and (3) a table of authorities.\19\ Executive summaries 
should be limited to five pages total, including footnotes.\20\ Case 
and rebuttal briefs should be filed using ACCESS.\21\
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    \18\ See 19 CFR 351.309(d)(1).
    \19\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2).
    \20\ Id.
    \21\ See 19 CFR 351.303.
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    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), any interested party may request a 
hearing within 30 days of the publication of this notice in the Federal 
Register. If a hearing is requested, Commerce will notify interested 
parties of the hearing schedule. Interested parties who wish to request 
a hearing, or to participate if one is requested, must submit a written 
request to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, 
filed electronically via ACCESS within 30 days after the date of 
publication of this notice. Requests should contain: (1) The party's 
name, address, and telephone number; (2) the number of participants; 
and (3) a list of the issues to be discussed. Issues raised in the 
hearing will be limited to those raised in the respective case and 
rebuttal briefs. We intend to issue the final results of this 
administrative review, including the results of our analysis of issues 
raised by the parties in the written comments, within 120 days of 
publication of these preliminary results in the Federal Register, 
unless otherwise extended.\22\
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    \22\ See section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Act.
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Assessment Rates

    Upon completion of the administrative review, Commerce shall 
determine, and CBP shall assess, antidumping duties on all appropriate 
entries. Commerce intends to issue assessment instructions to CBP 15 
days after the date of publication of the final results of this review.
    For any individually examined respondents whose weighted-average 
dumping margin is above de minimis (i.e., 0.50 percent), we will 
calculate importer-specific ad valorem duty assessment rates on the 
basis of the ratio of the total amount of dumping calculated for an 
importer's examined sales and the total entered value of such sales, in 
accordance with 19 CFR 351.212(b)(1).\23\ For entries of subject 
merchandise during the POR produced by each respondent for which it did 
not know its merchandise was destined for the United States, we will 
instruct CBP to liquidate such entries at the all-others rate if there 
is no rate for the intermediate company(ies) involved in the 
transaction.\24\ Where either the respondent's weighted-average dumping 
margin is zero or de minimis, or an importer-specific assessment rate 
is zero or de minimis, we will instruct CBP to liquidate the 
appropriate entries without regard to antidumping duties.
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    \23\ In these preliminary results, Commerce applied the 
assessment rate calculation methodology adopted in Antidumping 
Proceedings: Calculation of the Weighted-Average Dumping Margin and 
Assessment Rate in Certain Antidumping Proceedings: Final 
Modification, 77 FR 8101 (February 14, 2012).
    \24\ See Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings: 
Assessment of Antidumping Duties, 68 FR 23954 (May 6, 2003).
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    For the ten companies for which this review is rescinded, 
antidumping duties will be assessed at rates equal to the cash deposit 
of estimated antidumping duties required at the time of entry, or 
withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.212(c)(1)(i). Commerce intends to issue appropriate assessment 
instructions directly to CBP 15 days after publication of this notice. 
The final results of this review shall be the basis for the assessment 
of antidumping duties on entries of merchandise covered by the final 
results of this review and for future deposits of estimated duties, 
where applicable.

Cash Deposit Requirement

    The following cash deposit requirements will be effective upon 
publication of the notice of the final results of administrative review 
for all shipments of nails from Oman entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of the 
final results of this administrative review, as provided by section 
751(a)(2)(C) of the Act: (1) The cash deposit rate for the companies 
under review will be the rate established in the final results of this 
review (except, if the rate is zero or de minimis, no cash deposit will 
be required); (2) for merchandise exported by manufacturers or 
exporters not covered in this review but covered in a prior segment of 
the proceeding, the cash deposit rate will continue to be the company-
specific rate published for the most recently completed segment of this 
proceeding in which the manufacturer or exporter participated; (3) if 
the exporter is not a firm covered in this review, a prior review, or 
the less-than-fair-value investigation, but the manufacturer is, the 
cash deposit rate will be the rate established for the most recently 
completed segment of the proceeding for the manufacturer of the 
merchandise; and (4) the cash deposit rate for all other manufacturers 
or exporters will continue to be 9.10 percent ad valorem, the all-
others rate

[[Page 22249]]

established in the less-than-fair value investigation.\25\
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    \25\ See Certain Steel Nails from the Republic of Oman: Final 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 80 FR 28955 (May 20, 
2015).
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Notification to Importers

    This notice also serves as a preliminary reminder to importers of 
their responsibility under 19 CFR 351.402(f) 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 Commerce's presumption that 
reimbursement of antidumping duties occurred and the subsequent 
assessment of double antidumping duties.

Notification to Interested Parties

    These preliminary results and partial rescission of administrative 
review are issued and published in accordance with sections 751(a)(1) 
and 777(i)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.213(h)(1).

    Dated: May 7, 2018.
Gary Taverman,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Operations, performing the non-exclusive functions and duties of the 
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

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

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Scope of the Order
IV. Affiliation
V. Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Adverse Interferences
VI. Discussion of the Methodology
VII. Duty Absorption
VIII. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2018-10201 Filed 5-11-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P