[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 5, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15812-15814]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04619]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-533-810]


Stainless Steel Bar From India: Preliminary Results of 
Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2022-2023

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

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) is conducting an 
administrative review of the antidumping duty order on stainless steel 
bar from India. The period of review (POR) is February 1, 2022, through 
January 31, 2023. This review covers four producers/exporters of the 
subject merchandise. We preliminarily determine that subject 
merchandise has been sold at below normal value (NV) during this POR. 
We invite interested parties to comment on these preliminary results.

DATES: Applicable March 5, 2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Hermes Pinilla or Jacob Keller, AD/CVD 
Operations, Office I, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-3477 or (202) 482-4849, 
respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On February 21, 1995, Commerce published the antidumping duty order 
on stainless steel bar from India.\1\ On April 11, 2023, based on 
timely requests for administrative reviews, Commerce initiated an 
administrative review of the Order,\2\ and subsequently selected Aamor 
Inox Limited (Aamor) and Laxcon Steels Limited (Laxcon), as the 
mandatory respondents. On October 17, 2023, we extended the preliminary 
results until February 28, 2024.\3\
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    \1\ See Antidumping Duty Orders: Stainless Steel Bar from 
Brazil, India and Japan, 60 FR 9661 (February 21, 1995) (Order).
    \2\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 88 FR 21609 (April 11, 2023).
    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Extension of Deadline for Preliminary 
Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2022-2023,'' 
dated October 10, 2023.
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Scope of the Order

    The product covered by this Order is stainless steel bar from 
India. For a full description of the scope, see the Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum.\4\
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    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for Preliminary 
Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2022-2023: 
Stainless Steel Bar from India,'' dated concurrently with, and 
hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum), at 
2-3.
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Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this review in accordance with section 
751(a)(1)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Export 
price and constructed export price are calculated in accordance with 
section 772 of the Act. NV 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. A list of the 
topics discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is included as 
the appendix to this notice. The Preliminary Decision Memorandum is a 
public document and is made available to the public 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. In addition, a complete version of the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.

Rate for Non-Examined Companies

    The statute and Commerce's regulations do not address the 
establishment of a rate to be applied to companies not selected for 
examination when Commerce limits its examination in an administrative 
review pursuant to section 777A(c)(2) of the Act. Generally, Commerce 
looks to section 735(c)(5) of the Act, which provides instructions for 
calculating the all-others rate in a market economy investigation, for 
guidance when calculating the rate for companies which were not 
selected for individual examination in an administrative review. Under 
section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act, the all-others rate is normally an 
amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated weighted-average 
dumping margins established for exporters and producers individually 
investigated, excluding any zero or de minimis margins, and any margins 
determined entirely on the basis of facts available. In this review, we 
preliminarily calculated dumping margins for the two mandatory 
respondents, Aamor and Laxcon, of 0.55 and 0.61 percent, respectively, 
and we have assigned to the non-selected companies a rate of 0.57 
percent, which is the weighted-average dumping margins of Aamor and 
Laxcon weighted by their publicly ranged U.S. sales values.\5\
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    \5\ With two respondents under examination, Commerce normally 
calculates: (A) a weighted-average of the dumping margins calculated 
for the examined respondents; (B) a simple average of the dumping 
margins calculated for the examined respondents; and (C) a weighted-
average of the dumping margins calculated for the examined 
respondents using each company's publicly ranged U.S. sale 
quantities 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, e.g., 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).
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Preliminary Results of Review

    We preliminarily determine that the following estimated weighted-
average dumping margins exist for the period February 1, 2022, through 
January 31, 2023:
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    \6\ Collectively, these companies are known as Laxcon.
    \7\ Collectively, these companies are known as Venus Group.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             Weighted-
                                                              average
                    Producer/exporter                     dumping margin
                                                             (percent)
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Laxcon Steels Limited, and its affiliates, Ocean Steels             0.61
 Private Limited, Metlax International Private Limited,
 Parvati Private Limited, and Mega Steels Private
 Limited \6\............................................
Aamor Inox Limited......................................            0.55
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                         Non-Selected Companies
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Astrabite LLP...........................................            0.57
Venus Wire Industries Pvt. Ltd., and its affiliates,                0.57
 Precision Metals, Hindustan Inox Ltd., and Sieves
 Manufacturers (India) Pvt. Ltd.\7\.....................
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Disclosure and Public Comment

    We intend to disclose the calculations performed to parties within 
five days after publication of this notice.\8\ Pursuant to 19 CFR 
351.309(c), interested parties may submit case briefs

[[Page 15813]]

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 not later than five days after the date for filing case 
briefs.\9\ Interested parties who submit case briefs or rebuttal briefs 
in this proceeding must submit: (1) a table of contents listing each 
issue; and (2) a table of authorities.\10\
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    \8\ See 19 CFR 351.224(b).
    \9\ See 19 CFR 351.309(d); see also Administrative Protective 
Order, Service, and Other Procedures in Antidumping and 
Countervailing Duty Proceedings, 88 FR 67069, 67077 (September 29, 
2023) (APO and Service Final Rule).
    \10\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2).
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    As provided under 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2), in prior 
proceedings, we have encouraged interested parties to provide an 
executive summary of their brief that should be limited to five pages 
total, including footnotes. In this review, we instead request that 
interested parties provide, at the beginning of their briefs, a public 
executive summary for each issue raised in their briefs.\11\ Further, 
we request that interested parties limit their executive summary of 
each issue to no more than 450 words, no including citations. We intend 
to use the executive summaries as the basis of the comment summaries 
included in the issues and decision memorandum that will accompany the 
final results in this administrative review. We request that interested 
parties include footnotes for relevant citations in the executive 
summary of each issue. Note that Commerce has amended certain of its 
requirements pertaining to the service of documents in 19 CFR 
351.303(f).\12\
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    \11\ We use the term ``issue'' here to describe an argument that 
Commerce would normally address in a comment of the Issues and 
Decision Memorandum.
    \12\ See APO and Service Final Rule.
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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. Requests should contain: (1) the party's name, address, and 
telephone number; (2) the number of participants; and (3) a list of 
issues to be discussed. Issues raised in the hearing will be limited to 
those raised in the respective case briefs. An electronically filed 
hearing request must be received successfully in its entirety by 
Commerce's electronic records system, ACCESS, by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time 
within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice.

Final Results of Review

    Unless otherwise extended, Commerce intends to issue the final 
results of this administrative review, including the results of its 
analysis of issues raised in written briefs, no later than 120 days 
after the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register, 
pursuant to 751(a)(3)(A) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.213(h)(1).

Assessment Rate

    Upon issuance of the final results, Commerce will determine, and 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shall assess, antidumping 
duties on all appropriate entries covered by this review.\13\ If a 
respondent's weighted-average dumping margin is above de minimis in the 
final results of this review, we will calculate an importer-specific 
assessment rate based on the ratio of the total amount of dumping 
calculated for each importer's examined sales and the total entered 
value of the sales in accordance with 19 CFR 351.212(b)(1).\14\ If a 
respondent's weighted-average dumping margin or an importer-specific 
assessment rate is zero or de minimis in the final results of review, 
we will instruct CBP to liquidate the appropriate entries without 
regard to antidumping duties in accordance with the Final Modification 
for Reviews.\15\
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    \13\ See 19 CFR 351.212(b).
    \14\ In these preliminary results, Commerce applied the 
assessment rate calculation method adopted in Antidumping 
Proceedings: Calculation of the Weighted-Average Dumping Margin and 
Assessment Rate in Certain Antidumping Duty Proceedings; Final 
Modification, 77 FR 8101 (February 14, 2012) (Final Modification for 
Reviews).
    \15\ Id., 77 FR at 8103; see also 19 CFR 351.106(c)(2).
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    For entries of subject merchandise during the POR produced by 
Laxcon or Aamor for which they did not know their merchandise was 
destined for the United States, we will instruct CBP to liquidate 
unreviewed entries at the all-others rate if there is no rate for the 
intermediate company(ies) involved in the transaction.
    The final results of this administrative review shall be the basis 
for the assessment of antidumping duties on entries of merchandise 
under review and for future deposits of estimated duties, where 
applicable.
    We intend to issue assessment instructions to CBP no earlier than 
35 days after the date of publication of the final results of this 
review in the Federal Register. If a timely summons is filed at the 
U.S. Court of International Trade, the assessment instructions will 
direct CBP not to liquidate relevant entries until the time for parties 
to file a request for a statutory injunction has expired (i.e., within 
90 days of publication).

Cash Deposit Requirements

    The following cash deposit requirements for estimated antidumping 
duties will be effective upon publication of the notice of final 
results of this review for all shipments of stainless steel bar from 
India entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after 
the date of publication as provided by section 751(a)(2)(C) of the Act: 
(1) the cash deposit rate for the company listed above will be 
established in the final results of this review, except if the rate is 
less than 0.50 percent and, therefore, de minimis within the meaning of 
19 CFR 351.106(c)(1), in which case the cash deposit rate will be zero; 
(2) for merchandise exported by companies not covered in this review 
but covered in a prior segment of this proceeding, the cash deposit 
rate will continue to be the company-specific rate published for the 
most recent period; (3) if the exporter is not a firm covered in this 
review, a prior review, or the LTFV investigation but the producer is, 
the cash deposit rate will be the rate established for the most 
recently completed segment for the producer of the merchandise; (4) the 
cash deposit rate for all other producers or exporters will continue to 
be the 12.45 percent, the all-others rate established in the LTFV 
investigation.\16\ These cash deposit requirements, when imposed, shall 
remain in effect until further notice.
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    \16\ See Notice of Final Determination of Sales at Less Than 
Fair Value: Stainless Steel Bar from India, 59 FR 66915, 66921 
(December 28, 1994).
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Notification to Importers

    This notice serves as a preliminary 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 period of review. 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

    Commerce is issuing and publishing these results in accordance with 
sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.221(b)(4).


[[Page 15814]]


    Dated: February 28, 2024.
Ryan Majerus,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations, 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. Rate for Non-Examined Companies
V. Affiliation and Collapsing
VI. Discussion of the Methodology
VII. Currency Conversion
VIII. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2024-04619 Filed 3-4-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P