[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 86 (Thursday, May 2, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35788-35790]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-09590]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-533-896]


Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet From India: Preliminary Results and 
Partial Rescission of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2022

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

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminary 
determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to 
producers and exporters of common alloy aluminum sheet (aluminum sheet) 
from India. The period of review (POR) is January 1, 2022, through 
December 31, 2022. Interested parties are invited to comment on these 
preliminary results.

DATES: Applicable May 2, 2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Samuel Evans, AD/CVD operations, 
Office IX, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-2420.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On April 27, 2021, Commerce published the countervailing duty (CVD) 
order on aluminum sheet from India.\1\ On June 12, 2023, Commerce 
published in the Federal Register a notice of initiation of an 
administrative review of the Order.\2\ On December 4, 2023, Commerce 
extended the deadline for the preliminary results until April 26, 
2024.\3\
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    \1\ See Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet from Bahrain, India, and the 
Republica of Turkey: Countervailing Duty Orders, 86 FR 22144 (April 
27, 2021) (Order).
    \2\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 88 FR 38201 (June 12, 2023).
    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Extension of Deadline for Preliminary 
Results of 2022 Countervailing Duty Administrative Review,'' dated 
concurrently with, and hereby adopted by this notice (Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum).
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    For a complete description of the events that followed the 
initiation of this review, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\4\ 
A list of topics discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is 
included in an 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. In addition, a complete 
version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly 
at https//access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.
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    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary 
Determination of the Countervailing Duty Investigation of Common 
Alloy Aluminum Sheet from India,'' dated concurrently with, and 
hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum).
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Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this Order is aluminum sheet from India. 
For a complete description of the scope of the Order, see the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum.

Rescission of Administrative Review, in Part

    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3), Commerce's practice is to rescind 
an administrative review of a CVD order when it concludes that there 
are no suspended entries of subject merchandise during the POR.\5\ 
Normally, upon completion of an administrative review, the suspended 
entries are liquidated at the countervailing duty assessment rate 
calculated for the review period.\6\ Therefore, for an administrative 
review of a company to be conducted, there must be a reviewable, 
suspended entry that Commerce can instruct U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection (CBP) to liquidate at the calculated countervailing duty 
assessment rate calculated for the review period.\7\
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    \5\ See, e.g., Lightweight Thermal Paper from the People's 
Republic of China: Notice of Rescission of Countervailing Duty 
Admininstrative Review; 2015, 82 FR 14349 (March 20, 2017); see also 
Circular Welded Carbon Quality Steel Pipe from the People's Republic 
of China: Rescission of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 
2017, 84 FR 14650 (April 11, 2019).
    \6\ See 19 CFR 351.212(b)(2).
    \7\ See 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3).
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    According to the CBP import data, Jindal Aluminum Limited (Jindal) 
did not have a reviewable entry of subject merchandise during the POR 
for which liquidatin is suspended.\8\ Therefore, we notified interested 
parties that we intended to rescind this administrative review with 
respect to Jindal and provided parties an opportunity to submit 
comments, including factual information to demonstrate whether there 
were reviewable entries during the POR for Jindal.\9\ We received no 
comments in response to this memorandum. Therefore, in the absence of 
suspended entries of subject merchandise duing the POR, in accordance 
with 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3), we are rescinding this administrative review 
with respect to Jindal.
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    \8\ See Memorandum, ``Release of Customs and Broder Protection 
Data Query,'' dated June 23, 2023.
    \9\ See Memorandum, ``Notice of Intent to Rescind Review, In 
Part,'' dated December 27, 2023.
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Methodology

    Commerce is conduing this CVD administrative review in accordance 
with section 751(a)(1)(A) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the 
Act). For each of the subsidy programs found countervailable, Commercie 
preliminary determines 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.\10\ For a full description 
of the

[[Page 35789]]

methodology underlying our preliminary conclusions, see the Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum.
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    \10\ See sections 771(5)(B) and (D) of the Act regarding 
financial contribution; section 771(5)(E) of the Act regarding 
benefit; and section 771(5)(A) of the Act regarding specifically.
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Company Not Selected for Individual Examination

    The Act and Commerce's regulations do not directly address the 
subsidy rate to be applied to companies not selected for individual 
examination where Commerce limits its examination in an administrative 
review pursuant to section 777A(e)(2) of the Act. However, Commerce 
normally determines the rates for non-selected companies in reviews in 
a manner that is consistent with section 705(c)(5) of that Act, which 
provides instructions for calculating the all-others rate in an 
investigation. Section 777A(e)(2) fo the Act provides that ``the 
individual countervailable subsidy rates determined under subparagraph 
(A) shall be used to determine the all-others rate under section 
705(c)(5) {of the Act{time} .'' Section 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act states 
that for companies not investigated, in general we will determine an 
all-others rate by weight averaging the countervailable subsidy rates 
established for each of the companies individually investigated, 
excluding zero and de minimis rates or any rate based on solely on the 
facts available.
    According, to determine the rate for Virgo Aluminum Limited 
(Virgo), the company not selected for individual examination, 
Commerce's practice is to weight average the net subsidy rates for the 
selected mandatory respondents, excluding rates that are zero, de 
minimis, or based entirely on facts available.\11\ We selected Hindalco 
Industries Limited (Hindalco) and Manaksia Aluminum Company Limited 
(MALCO) for review as mandatory respondents and preliminary determine 
that each received countervailable subsidies at above de minimis rates. 
Therefore, for the POR, we are assigning Virgo a weighted average of 
the subsidy rates calculated for Hindalco and MALCO using each 
company's public ranged data for the value of it's exports of subject 
merchandise to the United States.\12\
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    \11\ See, e.g., Certain Pasta from Italy: Final Results of the 
13th (2008) Countervailing Duty Administrative Review, 75 FR 37386, 
37387 (June 29, 2010).
    \12\ See Memorandum, ``Calculation of Rate for Company Not 
Selected for Individual Examination,'' dated concurrently with this 
notice.
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Preliminary Results of Review

    As a result of this review, we preliminarily determine the 
following net countervailable subsidy rates for the period January 1, 
2022, through December 31, 2022:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           Subsidy rate
                         Company                          2022  (percent
                                                            ad valorem)
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Hindalco Industries Limited \13\........................           54.12
Manaksia Aluminum Company Limited.......................            2.90
Virgo Aluminum Limited..................................            5.32
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Disclousre and Public Comment
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    \13\ As discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, 
Commerce has found the following compaies to be cross-owned with 
Hindalco; Hindalco-Almex Aerospace Limited, Minerals Minerals 
Limited, Utkal Alumina International Limited, Suvas Holding Limited, 
and Birla Copper Asoj Private Limited.
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    Commerce intends to disclose its calculations performed to 
interested parties for these preliminary results within five days of 
any public announcement or, if there is no public announcement, within 
five days of the date of publication of this notice in the Federal 
Register in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b).
    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c), interested parties may submit case 
briefs to Commerce 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.\14\ 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.\15\ All briefs must be 
filed electronically using ACCESS. An electronically filed document 
must be received successfully in its entirety in ACCESS by 5:00 p.m. 
Eastern Time on the established deadline. 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 limted 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.\16\ Further we request that interested parties 
limit their public executive summary of each issue to no more than 450 
words, not including citations. We intend to use the public executive 
summaries as the basis of the comment summaries included in the issues 
and decision memorandum that will accompany the final results in this 
administravtive review. We request that interested parties include 
footnotes for relevant citations in the public 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).\17\
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    \14\ See 19 CFR 351.309(d); see also Administrative Protective 
Order, Service, and Other Procedures in Antidumpting and 
Countervailing Duty Proceedings, 88 FR 67069, 67077 (Sepember 29, 
2023).
    \15\ See 19 351.209(c)(2) and (d)(2).
    \16\ We use the term ``issue'' here to describe an argument that 
Commerce would normally address in a comment of the Issues and 
Decision Memorandum.
    \17\ See Administrative Protective Order, Service, and Other 
Procedures in Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings; Final 
Rule, 88 FR 67069 (September 29, 2023).
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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. If a request for a hearing 
is made, Commerce will inform parties of the scheduled date for the 
hearing. An electronically filed hearing request must be received 
successfully in its enterety 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

    Unless the deadline is extended pursuant to section 751(a)(3)(A) of 
the Act and 19 CFR 351.213(h)(2), Commerce intends to issue the final 
results of this administrative review, including the results of its 
analysis of the issues raised by parties in their comments, within 120 
days after the date of publication of these preliminary results.

Assessment Rates

    Consistent with section 751(a)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.212(b)(2), upon issuance of the final results, Commerce will 
determine, and CBP shall assess, countervailing duties on all 
appropriate entries covered by this review. We intend to issue 
intstruction 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 expried (i.e., within 90 days of 
publication).

[[Page 35790]]

    For Jindal, the company for which we are rescinding this 
administrative review, Commerce will instruct CBP to assess 
countervailing duties on all apppropriate entries at a rate equal to 
the cash deposit of estimated countervailing duties required at the 
time of entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption, during 
the period January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022, in accordance 
with 19 CFR 351.212(c)(l)(i). Commerce intends to issue apprporate 
assessment instructions directly to CBP no earlier than 35 days after 
the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register.

Cash Deposit Requirements

    In accordance with section 751(a)(2)(C) fo the Act, Commerce also 
intends, upon publication of the final results, to instruct CBP to 
collect cash deposits of estimated countervailing duties in the amounts 
shown for each of the companies listed above with regard to shipments 
of subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for 
consumption on or after the date of publication of the final results of 
this review. For all non-reviewed firms, CBP will continue to collect 
cash deposits of estimated countervailing duties at the all-others rate 
or the most recent company-specific rate applicable to the company, as 
appropirate. These cash deposit requirements, when imposed, shall 
remain in effect until futher notice.

Notificatin to Interested Parties

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

    Dated: April 26, 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. Subsidies Valuation
V. Benchmarks and Discount Rates
VI. Analysis of Programs
VII. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2024-09590 Filed 5-1-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P