[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 39 (Wednesday, February 27, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6374-6376]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-03319]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-580-897]


Large Diameter Welded Pipe From the Republic of Korea: Final 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value

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

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that large 
diameter welded pipe (welded pipe) from the Republic of Korea (Korea) 
is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than 
fair value (LTFV) for the period of investigation (POI) January 1, 
2017, through December 31, 2017.

DATES: Applicable February 27, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sergio Balbontin, or Jesus Saenz, AD/
CVD Operations, Office VIII, Enforcement and Compliance, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-6478 or (202) 
482-8184.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On August 27, 2018, Commerce published in the Federal Register the 
Preliminary Determination of sales at LTFV of welded pipe from Korea, 
in which we also postponed the final determination until January 9, 
2019.\1\ We invited interested parties to comment on the Preliminary 
Determination. A summary of the events that occurred since Commerce 
published the 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, which is adopted by this 
notice.\2\
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    \1\ See Large Diameter Welded Pipe from the Republic of Korea: 
Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and 
Postponement of Final Determination, 83 FR 43651 (August 27, 2018) 
(Preliminary Determination), and accompanying Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum.
    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Issues and Decision Memorandum for the 
Final Affirmative Determination in the Less-Than-Fair-Value 
Investigation of Large Diameter Welded Pipe from the Republic of 
Korea,'' dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice 
(Issues and Decision Memorandum).
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    Commerce exercised its discretion to toll all deadlines affected by 
the partial federal government closure from December 22, 2018, through 
the resumption of operations on January 29, 2019.\3\ If the new 
deadline falls on a non-business day, in accordance with Commerce's 
practice, the deadline will become the next business day. The revised 
deadline for the final determination is now February 19, 2019.
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    \3\ See Memorandum ``Deadlines Affected by the Partial Shutdown 
of the Federal Government,'' dated January 28, 2019. All deadlines 
in this segment of the proceeding have been extended by 40 days.
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Scope of the Investigation

    The product covered by this investigation is welded pipe from 
Korea. For a full description of the scope of this investigation, see 
the ``Scope of the Investigation'' in Appendix I of this notice.

Scope Comments

    During the course of this investigation and the concurrent LTFV 
investigations of welded pipe from Canada, Greece, India, the People's 
Republic of China and the Republic of Turkey (Turkey), and the 
concurrent countervailing duty investigations of welded pipe from 
China, India, Korea and Turkey, Commerce received scope comments from 
interested parties. Commerce issued a Preliminary Scope Decision 
Memorandum \4\ to address these comments. In the Preliminary 
Determination, Commerce set aside a period of time for parties to 
address scope issues in scope case and rebuttal briefs. No interested 
parties submitted scope comments in scope case or scope rebuttal 
briefs. Therefore, for this final determination, the scope of this 
investigation remains unchanged from that published in the Preliminary 
Determination.
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    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Scope Comments Decision Memorandum for the 
Preliminary Determinations,'' dated June 19, 2018 (Preliminary Scope 
Decision Memorandum).
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Analysis of Comments Received

    All issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs submitted by 
parties in this investigation are addressed in the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum accompanying this notice. A list of the issues addressed in 
the Issues and Decision Memorandum is attached to this notice as 
Appendix II. 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 https://access.trade.gov, and it is available to all parties in the Central 
Records Unit, Room B-8024 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/index.html. The signed and electronic versions of the Issues and 
Decision Memorandum are identical in content.

Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as 
amended, (the Act), from September to October 2018, we conducted 
verification of the sales and cost information submitted by Hyundai RB 
Co., Ltd. (Hyundai RB) and SeAH Steel Corporation (SeAH) for use in our 
final determination. We used standard verification procedures, 
including an examination of relevant accounting and production records, 
and original source documents provided by Hyundai RB and SeAH.\5\
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    \5\ For a discussion of our verification findings, see the 
following memoranda: ``Verification of the Cost Response of Hyundai 
RB Co., Ltd. in the Antidumping Duty Investigation of Large Diameter 
Welded Pipe from Korea,'' dated October 17, 2018; ``Verification of 
the Cost of Production and Constructed Value response of SeAH Steel 
Corporation and its Affiliates in the Antidumping Duty Investigation 
of Large Diameter Welded Pipe from Korea,'' dated November 1, 2018; 
``Verification of the Questionnaire Responses of Hyundai RB Co., 
Ltd. in the Antidumping Investigation of Large Diameter Welded Pipe 
from the Republic of Korea,'' dated November 5, 2018; ``Verification 
of the Sales Response of SeAH Steel Corporation in the Antidumping 
Investigation of Large Diameter Welded Pipe from Korea,'' dated 
November 5, 2018; and ``Verification of the CEP Sales Questionnaire 
Responses of SeAH Steel Corporation in the Antidumping Investigation 
of Large Diameter Welded Pipe from Korea,'' dated November 6, 2018; 
``Verification of the Further Manufacturing Response of SeAH Steel 
Corporation's Affiliates Pusan Pipe of America and State Pipe in 
Antidumping Duty Investigation of Large Diameter Welded Pipe from 
Korea,'' dated November 1, 2018.
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Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

    Based on our analysis of the comments received and our findings at 
verification, we made certain changes to the margin calculations for 
Hyundai RB and SeAH. For a discussion of these changes, see the 
``Margin Calculations'' section of the Issues and Decision Memorandum.

Use of Adverse Facts Available

    The respondent Samkang M&T Co., Ltd (SKMT) failed to cooperate in 
this investigation. Therefore, in the Preliminary Determination, 
pursuant to sections 776(a)(1), 776(a)(2)(A)-(C), and 776(b) of the 
Act, Commerce assigned SKMT a rate based on adverse facts available 
(AFA). No party filed comments on our Preliminary Determination with 
respect to SKMT and there is no new information on the record that 
would cause us to revisit our determination to apply AFA to SKMT.

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Accordingly, we continue to find that the application of AFA pursuant 
to section 776(a) and (b) of the Act is warranted with respect to SKMT. 
However, in applying total AFA for the final determination, Commerce 
has now assigned to SKMT's exports of the subject merchandise the rate 
of 20.39 percent, which is the highest rate calculated in the petition 
\6\ and which has been corroborated to the extent practicable within 
the meaning of section 776(c) of the Act.\7\
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    \6\ See Petitioners' Letter ``Large Diameter Welded Pipe from 
Canada, Greece, India, the People's Republic of China, the Republic 
of Korea and the Republic of Turkey: Response to the Department's 
January 30, 2018 Additional Questions Regarding Volume VI of the 
Petition for the Imposition of Antidumping and Countervailing 
Duties,'' dated February 1, 2018 at Exhibit AD-KR-Supp2-3.
    \7\ For further discussion see Issues and Decision Memorandum 
and Corroboration Memo.
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All-Others Rate

    Section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act provides that the estimated 
weighted-average dumping margin for all-other producers and exporters 
not individually investigated shall be equal to the weighted average of 
the estimated weighted-average dumping margins established for 
exporters and producers individually investigated excluding rates that 
are zero, de minimis, or determined entirely under section 776 of the 
Act. Hyundai RB and SeAH are the only respondents for which Commerce 
calculated an estimated weighted-average dumping margin that is not 
zero, de minimis, or based entirely on facts otherwise available. 
Commerce calculated the all-others' rate using a weighted average of 
the estimated weighted-average dumping margins calculated for the 
examined respondents using each company's publicly-ranged values for 
the merchandise under consideration.\8\
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    \8\ With two respondents under examination, Commerce normally 
calculates (A) a weighted average of the estimated weighted-average 
dumping margins calculated for the examined respondents; (B) a 
simple average of the estimated weighted-average dumping margins 
calculated for the examined respondents; and (C) a weighted average 
of the estimated weighted-average dumping margins calculated for the 
examined respondents using each company's publicly-ranged U.S. sale 
values for the merchandise under consideration. Commerce then 
compares (B) and (C) to (A) and selects the rate closest to (A) as 
the most appropriate rate for all other producers and exporters. See 
Ball Bearings and Parts Thereof from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, 
and the United Kingdom: Final Results of Antidumping Duty 
Administrative Reviews, Final Results of Changed-Circumstances 
Review, and Revocation of an Order in Part, 75 FR 53661, 53663 
(September 1, 2010); see also Memorandum, ``Calculation of the All-
Others Rate for the Final Determination,'' dated concurrently with 
this notice.
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Final Determination

    The final estimated weighted-average dumping margins are as 
follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             Weighted-     Cash deposit
                                              average     rate (adjusted
          Exporter or producer                dumping      for  subsidy
                                              margin        offset(s))
                                             (percent)       (percent)
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Hyundai RB Co., Ltd.....................           14.97           12.86
SeAH Steel Corporation..................            7.03            4.92
Samkang M&T Co., Ltd....................           20.39           18.28
All Others..............................            9.30            7.19
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Disclosure

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

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, for this final 
determination, we will direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 
to continue to suspend liquidation of all entries of welded pipe, as 
described in Appendix I of this notice, which are entered, or withdrawn 
from warehouse, for consumption on or after August 27, 2018, the date 
of publication in the Federal Register of the affirmative Preliminary 
Determination.
    Pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.210(d), we will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit for such 
entries of merchandise equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping 
margin as follows: (1) The cash deposit rate for the respondents listed 
above will be equal to the respondent-specific estimated weighted-
average dumping margin determined in this final determination; (2) if 
the exporter is not a respondent identified above but the producer is, 
then the cash deposit rate will be equal to the respondent-specific 
estimated weighted-average dumping margin established for that producer 
of the subject merchandise; and (3) the cash deposit rate for all other 
producers and exporters will be equal to the all-others estimated 
weighted-average dumping margin. These suspension-of-liquidation 
instructions will remain in effect until further notice.
    Further, we will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit equal to 
the estimated amount by which the normal value exceeds the U.S. price 
as shown above, adjusted where appropriate, for export subsidies found 
in the final determination of the companion countervailing duty 
investigation.\9\ Consistent with our longstanding practice, where the 
product under investigation is also subject to a concurrent 
countervailing duty investigation, we instruct CBP to require a cash 
deposit equal to the amount by which the normal value exceeds the U.S. 
price, less the amount of the countervailing duty determined to 
constitute any export subsidies.\10\
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    \9\ 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).
    \10\ See, e.g., Welded Line Pipe from the Republic of Turkey: 
Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 80 FR 61362 
(October 13, 2015), and Notice of Final Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value and Negative Critical Circumstances 
Determination: Bottom Mount Combination Refrigerator-Freezers from 
the Republic of Korea, 77 FR 17413 (March 26, 2012).
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    Therefore, in the event that a countervailing duty order is issued 
and suspension of liquidation is resumed in the companion 
countervailing duty investigation on welded pipe from Korea, Commerce 
will instruct CBP to require cash deposits adjusted by the amount of 
export subsidies, as appropriate. These adjustments are reflected in 
the final column of the rate chart, above. Until such suspension of 
liquidation is resumed in the companion countervailing duty 
investigation, and so long as suspension of liquidation continues under 
this antidumping duty investigation, the cash deposit rates for this 
antidumping

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duty investigation will be the rates identified in the estimated 
weighted-average dumping margin column in the rate chart, above.

International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we will notify the 
International Trade Commission (ITC) of the final affirmative 
determination of sales at LTFV. 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. 
Because Commerce's final determination is affirmative, in accordance 
with section 735(b)(2) of the Act, the ITC will make its final 
determination as to whether the domestic industry in the United States 
is materially injured, or threatened with material injury, by reason of 
imports, or sales (or the likelihood of sales) for importation of 
welded pipe from Korea no later than 45 days after this final 
determination. If the ITC determines that such injury does not exist, 
this proceeding will be terminated and all cash deposits will be 
refunded. If the ITC determines that such injury does exist, Commerce 
will issue an antidumping duty order directing CBP to assess, upon 
further instruction by Commerce, antidumping duties on all imports of 
the subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for 
consumption on or after the effective date of the suspension of 
liquidation, as discussed above in the ``Continuation of Suspension of 
Liquidation'' section.

Notification Regarding Administrative Protective Orders

    This notice serves as a reminder to parties subject to an 
administrative protective order (APO) 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 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.

Notification to Interested Parties

    This determination and this notice are issued and published 
pursuant to sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.210(c).

    Dated: February 19, 2019.
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 this investigation is welded carbon 
and alloy steel pipe (including stainless steel pipe), more than 
406.4 mm (16 inches) in nominal outside diameter (large diameter 
welded pipe), regardless of wall thickness, length, surface finish, 
grade, end finish, or stenciling. Large diameter welded pipe may be 
used to transport oil, gas, slurry, steam, or other fluids, liquids, 
or gases. It may also be used for structural purposes, including, 
but not limited to, piling. Specifically, not included is large 
diameter welded pipe produced only to specifications of the American 
Water Works Association (AWWA) for water and sewage pipe.
    Large diameter welded pipe used to transport oil, gas, or 
natural gas liquids is normally produced to the American Petroleum 
Institute (API) specification 5L. Large diameter welded pipe may 
also be produced to American Society for Testing and Materials 
(ASTM) standards A500, A252, or A53, or other relevant domestic 
specifications, grades and/or standards. Large diameter welded pipe 
can be produced to comparable foreign specifications, grades and/or 
standards or to proprietary specifications, grades and/or standards, 
or can be non-graded material. All pipe meeting the physical 
description set forth above is covered by the scope of this 
investigation, whether or not produced according to a particular 
standard.
    Subject merchandise also includes large diameter welded pipe 
that has been further processed in a third country, including but 
not limited to coating, painting, notching, beveling, cutting, 
punching, welding, 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 in-scope large 
diameter welded pipe.
    Excluded from the scope are any products covered by the existing 
antidumping duty order on welded line pipe from the Republic of 
Korea. See Welded Line Pipe from the Republic of Korea and the 
Republic of Turkey: Antidumping Duty Orders, 80 FR 75056 (December 
1, 2015). Also excluded from the scope are any products covered by 
the existing antidumping order on welded ASTM A-312 stainless steel 
pipe from Korea. See Welded ASTM A-312 Stainless Steel Pipe from 
South Korea: Antidumping Duty Order, 57 FR 62300 (December 30, 
1992).
    The large diameter welded pipe that is subject to this 
investigation is currently classifiable in the Harmonized Tariff 
Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) under subheadings 
7305.11.1030, 7305.11.1060, 7305.11.5000, 7305.12.1030, 
7305.12.1060, 7305.12.5000, 7305.19.1030, 7305.19.1060, 
7305.19.5000, 7305.31.4000, 7305.31.6010, 7305.31.6090, 7305.39.1000 
and 7305.39.5000. While 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. Scope of the Investigation
IV. Margin Calculations
V. Application of Adverse Facts Available
VI. Adjustment for Countervailed Export Subsidies
VII. Discussion of the Issues
    General Issues
    1. Cost-Based Particular Market Situation Allegation
    2. Petitioners' Proposed Regression Analysis
    3. Whether Subsidy Rates used to Adjust the PMS are Accurate
    4. PMS Adjustment for Stainless Steel Plate
    5. Differential Pricing
    6. Direct Material/Conversion Costs
    Hyundai RB
    7. Hyundai RB's G&A Expense Ratio
    8. Hyundai RB and Hyundai Steel Affiliation
    9. Hyundai RB's Indirect Selling Expense Ratio
    10. Hyundai RB's Foreign Exchange Losses
    11. Treatment of Company A's Bad Debt Expenses
    12. Hyundai RB's Scrap Offset
    SeAH
    13. SeAH's Indirect Selling Expenses for Non-Further 
Manufactured Sales
    14. SeAH's Sale to Puerto Rico
    15. Treatment of Refunds from Customs and Border Protection and 
Refund for Damaged Goods
    16. SeAH Holdings Corporation's Unrecovered Costs
    17. SeAH's Interest Income Offset
    18. Correction of Ministerial Errors in the Preliminary 
Determination
    19. Correction of Minor Errors Reported at Verification
    20. Freight Revenue Cap
VIII. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2019-03319 Filed 2-26-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P