[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 201 (Thursday, October 17, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55551-55553]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-22668]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-475-835]


Finished Carbon Steel Flanges From Italy: Preliminary Results of 
Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2017-2018

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines 
that finished carbon steel flanges from Italy are being sold in the 
United States at less than normal value during the period of review 
(POR). The POR is February 8, 2017 through July 31, 2018. Interested 
parties are invited to comment on these preliminary results.

DATES: Applicable October 17, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Edythe Artman or Brian C. Davis, AD/
CVD Operations, Office VI, Enforcement and Compliance, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-3931 or (202) 
482-7924, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    These preliminary results of review are issued in accordance with 
section 751(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). On 
October 4, 2018, in accordance with section 751(a) of the Act and 19 
CFR 351.221(c)(1)(i), Commerce published the notice of initiation for 
the administrative review.\1\ In the Initiation Notice, Commerce stated 
that, where appropriate, it intended to select respondents based on 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for U.S. imports during 
the POR.\2\ After receiving no comments on the CBP data from parties 
with an administrative protective order, Commerce selected ASFO S.p.A. 
(ASFO) and Forgital Italy S.p.A. (Forgital) from 27 possible 
respondents for individual examination in this review.\3\
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    \1\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 83 FR 50077 (October 4, 2018) (Initiation 
Notice).
    \2\ Id.
    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Antidumping Duty Administrative Review of 
Finished Carbon Steel Flanges from Italy: Respondent Selection,'' 
dated November 16, 2018, 1-5.
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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

[[Page 55552]]

resumption of operations on January 29, 2019, moving the deadline for 
the preliminary results of this review to June 12, 2019.\4\ On June 6, 
2019, we extended the time limit for completion of the preliminary 
results of the review to no later than October 10, 2019.\5\ For a 
complete description of the events that followed the initiation of the 
review, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\6\
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    \4\ See Memorandum to the Record from 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, ``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.
    \5\ See Memorandum, ``Finished Carbon Steel Flanges from Italy: 
Extension of Deadline for Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty 
Administrative Review; 2017-2018,'' dated June 6, 2019.
    \6\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for Preliminary 
Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review: Finished Carbon 
Steel Flanges from Italy; 2017-2018,'' dated concurrently with, and 
hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum).
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    A list of topics included in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is 
included in the Appendix 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, located in room B8094 of the main Commerce 
building. In addition, a complete version of the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum can be accessed directly at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/. The signed and the electronic versions of the Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum are identical in content.

Scope of the Order

    The products covered by the scope of the order are finished carbon 
steel flanges from Italy. For a complete description of the scope, see 
the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.

Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this review in accordance with section 
751(a)(1)(B) of the Act. For a full description of the methodology 
underlying the preliminary results, see the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum.

Facts Available

    Pursuant to section 776(a) of the Act, Commerce is preliminarily 
relying upon facts otherwise available to assign estimated weighted-
average dumping margins to the respondents selected for individual 
examination in this review, because both ASFO and Forgital withheld 
necessary information that was requested by Commerce, thereby 
significantly impeding the conduct of the review. Further, Commerce 
preliminarily determines that both ASFO and Forgital failed to 
cooperate by not acting to the best of their abilities to comply with 
requests for information and, thus, Commerce is applying an adverse 
inference in selecting among the facts available, in accordance with 
section 776(b) of the Act. For a full description of the methodology 
underlying our conclusions regarding the application of adverse facts 
available (AFA), see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.

Rate for Non-Selected Companies

    In accordance with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal 
Circuit's decision in Albemarle Corp. v. United States,\7\ we are 
applying to the non-selected companies a rate based on the simple 
average of the individual rates preliminarily applied to ASFO and 
Forgital in this administrative review, or 204.53 percent. For a 
detailed discussion, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
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    \7\ See Albemarle Corp. v. United States, 821 F.3d 1345 (Fed. 
Cir. 2016).
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Preliminary Results of Review

    We preliminarily determine that, for the period February 8, 2017 
through July 31, 2018, the following dumping margins exist:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             Weighted-
                                                              average
                    Producer/exporter                     dumping margin
                                                             (percent)
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ASFO S.p.A..............................................          204.53
Forgital Italy S.p.A....................................          204.53
ASFO S.p.A.--FOMAS Group................................          204.53
Assotherm srl...........................................          204.53
Bifrangi S.p.A..........................................          204.53
CAT Carpenteria Metallica srl...........................          204.53
Costruzione Ricambi Machine Industriali.................          204.53
Filmag Italia S.r.l.....................................          204.53
FOC Ciscato S.p.Ar......................................          204.53
FOMAS...................................................          204.53
Forgia Di Bollate S.p.A.................................          204.53
Forgiatura A. Vienna diAntonio Vienna...................          204.53
Franchini Acciai S.p.A..................................          204.53
Galperti Forged Products................................          204.53
Inox Laghi S.r.l........................................          204.53
KIASMA SRL..............................................          204.53
Iml Industria Meccanica Ligure..........................          204.53
Martin Valmore srl......................................          204.53
M.E.G.A. S.p.A..........................................          204.53
Metalfar Prodotti Industriali, S.p.A....................          204.53
Officine Ambrogio Melesi & C. S.R.L.....................          204.53
Officine di Cortabbio s.r.l.............................          204.53
OFFICINE MECCANICHE CIOCCA S.p.A........................          204.53
Office SANTAFEDE........................................          204.53
Siderforgerossi Group S.p.A.............................          204.53
UNIGEN Steel Engineering................................          204.53
VALVITALIA S.p.A........................................          204.53
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Disclosure and Public Comment

    Normally, Commerce discloses the calculations performed in 
connection with preliminary results to interested parties within five 
days after the date of publication of this notice.\8\ Because Commerce 
preliminarily applied total AFA to each of the mandatory respondents in 
this review, in accordance with section 776 of the Act, there are no 
calculations to disclose.
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    \8\ See 19 CFR 351.224(b).
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    Interested parties may submit case briefs no later than 30 days 
after the date of publication of this notice.\9\ Rebuttal briefs, the 
content of which is limited to the issues raised in the case briefs, 
must be filed within five days from the deadline date for the 
submission of case briefs.\10\ Parties who submit case or rebuttal 
briefs in this proceeding are requested to submit with each argument: 
(1) A statement of the issue; (2) a brief summary of the argument; and 
(3) a table of authorities.\11\ Case and rebuttal briefs should be 
filed using ACCESS.\12\
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    \9\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(1)(ii).
    \10\ See 19 CFR 351.309(d)(1) and (2).
    \11\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2).
    \12\ See generally 19 CFR 351.303.
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    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), interested parties who wish to 
request a hearing must submit a written request to the Assistant 
Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, filed electronically via 
ACCESS. An electronically filed document must be received successfully 
in its entirety by the Department's electronic records system, ACCESS, 
by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time within 30 days after the date of publication 
of this notice.\13\ Requests should contain: (1) The party's name, 
address and telephone number; (2) the number of participants; and (3) a 
list of issues parties intend to discuss. Issues raised in the hearing 
will be limited to those raised in the respective case and rebuttal 
briefs. If a request for a hearing is made, Commerce intends to hold 
the

[[Page 55553]]

hearing at the U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230, at a date and time to be determined.\14\ 
Parties should confirm the date, time, and location of the hearing two 
days before the scheduled date.
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    \13\ See 19 CFR 351.310(c).
    \14\ See 19 CFR 351.310(d).
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    Unless extended, Commerce intends to issue the final results of 
this administrative review, which will include the results of our 
analysis of all issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs, within 
120 days of publication of these preliminary results in the Federal 
Register, pursuant to section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Act.

Assessment Rates

    Upon completion of the administrative review, Commerce shall 
determine, and CBP shall assess, antidumping duties on all appropriate 
entries covered by this review.\15\ If the preliminary results are 
unchanged for the final results, we will instruct CBP to apply an ad 
valorem assessment rate of 204.53 percent to all entries of subject 
merchandise during the POR which were produced and/or exported by ASFO, 
Forgital and the aforementioned companies which were not selected for 
individual examination. We intend to issue liquidation instructions to 
CBP 15 days after publication of the final results of this review.
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    \15\ See 19 CFR 351.212(b).
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Cash Deposit Requirements

    The following cash deposit requirements will be effective upon 
publication of the final results of this administrative review for all 
shipments of the subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after the publication date 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 ASFO, Forgital 
and the other companies listed above will be equal to the dumping 
margin established in the final results of this administrative review; 
(2) for previously reviewed or investigated companies not listed above, 
the cash deposit rate will continue to be the company-specific rate 
published for the most recently completed segment of this proceeding in 
which they were reviewed; (3) if the exporter is not a firm covered in 
this review, a prior review, or in the investigation, but the producer 
is, the cash deposit rate will be the rate established for the most 
recently completed segment of this proceeding for the producer of the 
merchandise; and (4) the cash deposit rate for all other producers or 
exporters will continue to be the all-others rate of 79.17 percent, the 
rate established in the investigation of this proceeding.\16\ These 
cash deposit requirements, when imposed, shall remain in effect until 
further notice.
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    \16\ See Finished Carbon Steel Flanges from India and Italy: 
Antidumping Duty Orders, 82 FR 40136, 40138 (August 24, 2017).
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Notification to Importers

    This notice also serves as a reminder to importers of their 
responsibility under 19 CFR 351.402(f)(2) 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

    We are issuing and publishing this notice in accordance with 
sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act and sections 19 CFR 
351.213(h)(1) and 351.221(b)(4).

    Dated: October 9, 2019.
Jeffrey I. Kessler,
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. Application of Facts Available and Use of Adverse Inference
V. Rate for Non-Selected Companies
VI. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2019-22668 Filed 10-16-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P