[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 221 (Thursday, November 15, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57427-57429]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-24867]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-570-074]


Countervailing Duty Investigation of Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet 
From the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative Determination

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that 
countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters 
of common alloy aluminum sheet (common alloy sheet) from the People's 
Republic of China (China) for the period of investigation (POI) January 
1, 2016, through December 31, 2016.

DATES: Applicable November 15, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Yasmin Bordas, Lana Nigro, or John 
Anwesen, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-3813, (202) 482-1779, or 
(202) 482-0131, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On April 23, 2018, Commerce published in the Federal Register the 
Preliminary Determination and invited interested parties to comment.\1\ 
A summary of the events that occurred since Commerce published 
Preliminary Determination, as well as a full discussion of the issues 
raised by parties for this final determination, may be found in the 
Issues and Decision Memorandum that is dated concurrently with this 
determination and hereby adopted by this notice.\2\
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    \1\ See Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet from the People's Republic 
of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty (CVD) 
Determination, Alignment of Final CVD Determination with Final 
Antidumping Duty Determination, and Preliminary CVD Determination of 
Critical Circumstances, 83 FR 17651 (April 23, 2018) (Preliminary 
Determination), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum 
(PDM).
    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Issues and Decision Memorandum for the 
Final Determination in the Countervailing Duty Investigation of 
Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet from the People's Republic of China,'' 
dated concurrently with this determination and hereby adopted by 
this notice (Issues and Decision Memorandum).
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    The Issues and 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 
is 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 Issues and Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly 
at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/. The signed Issues and Decision 
Memorandum and the electronic version are identical in content.

Scope Comments

    We invited parties to comment on Commerce's Scope Comments 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\3\ Commerce has reviewed the briefs 
submitted by interested parties, considered the arguments therein, and 
has made no changes to the scope of the investigation. For further 
discussion, see Commerce's Scope Comments Final Decision Memorandum.\4\
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    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet from the 
People's Republic of China: Scope Comments Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum,'' dated June 15, 2018.
    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet from the 
People's Republic of China: Scope Comments Final Decision 
Memorandum,'' dated concurrently with this memorandum.
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Methodology

    Commerce conducted this countervailing duty (CVD) investigation in 
accordance with section 701 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended 
(Act). For each of the subsidy programs found to be countervailable, we 
determine that there is a subsidy (i.e., a financial contribution by an 
``authority'' that gives rise to a benefit to the recipient) and that 
the subsidy is specific. For a full description of the methodology 
underlying our final determination, see the Issues and Decisions 
Memorandum.

Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this investigation is common alloy sheet 
from China. For a complete description of the scope of this 
investigation, see Appendix I.

Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Act, in June 2018, we 
conducted verification of the questionnaire responses submitted by 
Henan Mingtai Industrial Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Mingtai (collectively, 
Mingtai); and Yong Jie New Material Co., Ltd. (Yong Jie New Material). 
We issued verification reports on July 3, 2018.\5\ We used standard 
verification procedures, including an examination of relevant 
accounting and financial records, and original source documents 
provided by Mingtai and Yong Jie New Material.
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    \5\ See Commerce Memoranda, ``Verification of the Questionnaire 
Responses of Henan Mingtai Al Industrial Co., ltd. and Zhengzhou 
Mingtai Industry Co., Ltd.: Countervailing Duty Investigation of 
Common Alloy Sheet from the People's Republic of China,'' (Mingtai 
Verification Report) and ``Verification of the Questionnaire 
Responses of Yong Jie New Material: Countervailing Duty 
Investigation of Common Alloy Sheet from the People's Republic of 
China,'' (Yong Jie New Material Verification Report), both dated 
July 3, 2018.
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Period of Investigation

    The POI is January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016.

Analysis of Subsidy Programs and Comments Received

    The subsidy programs under investigation, and the issues raised in 
the case and rebuttal briefs submitted by the parties, are discussed in 
the Issues and Decision Memorandum. A list of the issues that parties 
raised, and to which we responded in the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum, is attached to this notice at Appendix II.

Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances

    In the Preliminary Determination, we found that critical 
circumstances exist for the Chalco companies and ``all-others.'' For 
this final determination, pursuant to section 705(a)(2) of the Act, we 
continue to find that critical circumstances exist for the Chalco 
companies and ``all-others.'' For a full description of the methodology 
and results of Commerce's critical circumstances analysis, see Final 
Determination Critical Circumstances Analysis Memo \6\ and Issues and 
Decision Memorandum at ``Final Determination of Critical

[[Page 57428]]

Circumstances, In Part'' and Comments 2 and 3.
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    \6\ See Memorandum, ``Calculations for Final Determination of 
Critical Circumstances in the Countervailing Duty Investigation of 
Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet from the People's Republic of China,'' 
dated concurrently with final determination; see also Memorandum, 
``Calculations for Preliminary Determination of Critical 
Circumstances in the Countervailing Duty Investigation of Common 
Alloy Aluminum Sheet from the People's Republic of China,'' dated 
April 16, 2018.
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Use of Adverse Facts Available (AFA)

    For purposes of this final determination, we relied on facts 
available, and because certain respondents did not act to the best of 
their ability in responding to Commerce's requests for information, we 
drew an adverse inference, where appropriate, in selecting from among 
the facts otherwise available.\7\ The subsidy rates for Chalco Ruimin 
Co., Ltd. and Chalco-SWA Cold Rolling Co., Ltd. (collectively, the 
Chalco companies) are based entirely on AFA. A full discussion of our 
decision to rely on AFA is presented in the ``Use of Facts Otherwise 
Available and Adverse Inferences'' section of the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum.
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    \7\ See sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act.
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Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

    Based on our review and analysis of the comments received from 
parties, and minor corrections presented at verification, we made 
certain changes to the respondents' subsidy rate calculations since the 
Preliminary Determination. For a discussion of these changes, see the 
Issues and Decision Memorandum and the Final Calculation Memoranda.\8\
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    \8\ See Memoranda, ``Countervailing Duty Investigation of Common 
Alloy Aluminum Sheet from the People's Republic of China: Final 
Determination Calculation Memorandum for Henan Mingtai Industrial 
Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Mingtai,'' dated November 5, 2018 (Mingtai 
Final Calculation Memorandum) and ``Countervailing Duty 
Investigation of Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet from the People's 
Republic of China: Final Determination Calculation Memorandum for 
Yong Jie New Material Co., Ltd.,'' dated November 5, 2018 (Yong Jie 
New Material Final Calculation Memorandum).
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All-Others Rate

    In accordance with section 705(c)(1)(B)(i) of the Act, we 
calculated an individual rate for each producer/exporter of the subject 
merchandise individually investigated.
    In accordance with section 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act, for companies 
not individually investigated, we apply an ``all-others'' rate, which 
is normally calculated by weighting the subsidy rates of the individual 
companies selected as mandatory respondents by those companies' exports 
of the subject merchandise to the United States. Under section 
705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act, the ``all-others'' rate excludes zero and 
de minimis rates calculated for the exporters and producers 
individually investigated as well as rates based entirely on facts 
otherwise available. Where the rates for the individually investigated 
companies are all zero or de minimis, or determined entirely using 
facts otherwise available, section 705(c)(5)(A)(ii) of the Act 
instructs Commerce to establish an ``all-others'' rate using ``any 
reasonable method.''
    Pursuant to section 705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act, we calculated the 
``all-others'' rate using the subsidy rates of Mingtai and Yong Jie New 
Material, the only two mandatory respondents not receiving a subsidy 
rate based totally on section 776 of the Act. However, we have not 
calculated the ``all-others'' rate by weight-averaging these two rates 
because doing so risks disclosure of proprietary information.\9\ 
Therefore, and consistent with Commerce's practice, for the ``all-
others'' rate, we calculated a simple average of these two mandatory 
respondents' subsidy rates.
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    \9\ We could not use the submitted publicly ranged data to 
calculate the all-others rate because, Yong Jie New Material did not 
establish its publicly ranged data in the manner required by 19 CFR 
351.304(c).
    \10\ As discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, 
Commerce has found Henan Gongdian Thermal Co., Ltd. to be cross-
owned with Henan Mingtai Industrial Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Mingtai 
Industry Co., Ltd.
    \11\ As discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, 
Commerce has found the following companies to be cross-owned with 
Yong Jie New Material: Zhejiang Yongjie Aluminum Co., Ltd.; Zhejiang 
Nanjie Industry Co., Ltd; Zhejiang Yongjie Holding Co., Ltd; and 
Nanjie Resources Co., Ltd.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           Subsidy rate
                         Company                             (percent)
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Chalco Ruimin Co., Ltd..................................          116.49
Chalco-SWA Cold Rolling Co., Ltd........................          116.49
Henan Mingtai Industrial Co., Ltd./Zhengzhou Mingtai               46.48
 Industry Co., Ltd \10\.................................
Yong Jie New Material Co., Ltd \11\.....................           55.02
All-Others..............................................           50.75
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Final Determination

Disclosure

    We intend to disclose to parties in this proceeding the 
calculations performed for this final determination within five days of 
the date of public announcement of our final determination, in 
accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b).

Suspension of Liquidation

    As a result of our Preliminary Determination, and pursuant to 
sections 703(d)(1)(B) and (2) of the Act, we instructed U.S. Customs 
and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation of all entries of 
merchandise under consideration from China that were entered or 
withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, on or after April 23, 2018, 
the date of publication of the Preliminary Determination in the Federal 
Register. Also, as a result of our Preliminary Determination, we 
instructed CBP to suspend liquidation on entries of merchandise under 
consideration from China for the Chalco companies and ``all-others'' 
effective January 23, 2018. In accordance with section 703(d) of the 
Act, on August 20, 2018, we instructed CBP to discontinue the 
suspension of liquidation of all entries at that time.
    If the U.S. International Trade Commission (the ITC) issues a final 
affirmative injury determination, we will issue a CVD order, will 
reinstate the suspension of liquidation under section 706(a) of the 
Act, and will require a cash deposit of estimated CVDs for such entries 
of subject merchandise in the amounts indicated above. If the ITC 
determines that material injury, or threat of material injury, does not 
exist, this proceeding will be terminated, and all estimated duties 
deposited or securities posted as a result of the suspension of 
liquidation will be refunded or canceled.

International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 705(d) of the Act, we will notify the 
ITC of our determination. In addition, we are making available to the 
ITC all non-privileged and non-proprietary information related to this 
investigation. We will allow the ITC access to all privileged and 
business proprietary information in our files, provided the ITC 
confirms that it will not disclose such information, either publicly or 
under an administrative protective order (APO), without the written 
consent of the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Notification Regarding Administrative Protective Orders

    This notice also serves as a reminder to parties subject to 
administrative protective orders (APOs) 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 the return or 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.

Return or Destruction of Proprietary Information

    In the event the ITC issues a final negative injury determination, 
this

[[Page 57429]]

notice serves as the only reminder to parties subject to an APO of 
their responsibility concerning the destruction of proprietary 
information disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.305(a)(3). Timely written notification of the return or destruction 
of APO materials, or conversion to judicial protective order, is hereby 
requested. Failure to comply with the regulations and terms of an APO 
is a violation subject to sanction.

Notification to Interested Parties

    This determination is issued and published pursuant to sections 
705(d) and 777(i) of the Act.

    Dated: November 5, 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 I--Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by the investigation is aluminum common 
alloy sheet (common alloy sheet), which is a flat-rolled aluminum 
product having a thickness of 6.3 mm or less, but greater than 0.2 
mm, in coils or cut-to-length, regardless of width. Common alloy 
sheet within the scope of the investigation includes both not clad 
aluminum sheet, as well as multi-alloy, clad aluminum sheet. With 
respect to not clad aluminum sheet, common alloy sheet is 
manufactured from a 1XXX-, 3XXX-, or 5XXX-series alloy as designated 
by the Aluminum Association. With respect to multi-alloy, clad 
aluminum sheet, common alloy sheet is produced from a 3XXX-series 
core, to which cladding layers are applied to either one or both 
sides of the core.
    Common alloy sheet may be made to ASTM specification B209-14, 
but can also be made to other specifications. Regardless of 
specification, however, all common alloy sheet meeting the scope 
description is included in the scope. Subject merchandise includes 
common alloy sheet 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 common alloy sheet.
    Excluded from the scope of the investigation is aluminum can 
stock, which is suitable for use in the manufacture of aluminum 
beverage cans, lids of such cans, or tabs used to open such cans. 
Aluminum can stock is produced to gauges that range from 0.200 mm to 
0.292 mm, and has an H-19, H-41, H-48, or H-391 temper. In addition, 
aluminum can stock has a lubricant applied to the flat surfaces of 
the can stock to facilitate its movement through machines used in 
the manufacture of beverage cans. Aluminum can stock is properly 
classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTSUS) subheadings 7606.12.3045 and 7606.12.3055.
    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 for the above.
    Common alloy sheet is currently classifiable under HTSUS 
subheadings 7606.11.3060, 7606.11.6000, 7606.12.3090, 7606.12.6000, 
7606.91.3090, 7606.91.6080, 7606.92.3090, and 7606.92.6080. Further, 
merchandise that falls within the scope of these investigation may 
also be entered into the United States under HTSUS subheadings 
7606.11.3030, 7606.12.3030, 7606.91.3060, 7606.91.6040, 
7606.92.3060, 7606.92.6040, 7607.11.9090. Although the HTSUS 
subheadings 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 Issues and Decision 
Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Final Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part
IV. Scope of the Investigation
V. Scope Comments
VI. Subsidies Valuation Information
VII. Benchmarks and Discount Rates
VIII. Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Adverse Inferences
IX. Analysis of Programs
X. Analysis of Comments
    Comment 1: Whether Commerce's Self-Initiation of This 
Investigation Was Lawful
    Comment 2: Whether Commerce's Investigation of Critical 
Circumstances Was Lawful
    Comment 3: Whether To Make a Separate Critical Circumstances 
Determination for TCI
    Comment 4: Whether Commerce Should Continue To Apply AFA to the 
Export Buyer's Credit Program
    Comment 5: Whether Commerce's Finding That the Aluminum and 
Steal Coal Markets Are Distorted Is Supported by Substantial 
Evidence
    Comment 6: Whether Commerce Should Apply AFA to Yong Jie New 
Material's Financing
    Comment 7: Whether Commerce Should Adjust Its Benefit 
Calculation for the Provision of Land for Less Than Adequate 
Remuneration
    Comment 8: Whether Commerce Should Apply AFA to Mingtai's 
Financing
    Comment 9: Whether Commerce Should Amend Its Preliminary 
Calculation for Subsidies Received by Mingtai
XI. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2018-24867 Filed 11-14-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P