[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 181 (Wednesday, September 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76450-76452]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-21175]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-821-838]


Ferrosilicon From the Russian Federation: Final Affirmative 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Final Affirmative 
Determination of Critical Circumstances

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

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that 
ferrosilicon from the Russian Federation (Russia) is being, or is 
likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV) 
during the period of investigation (POI) July 1, 2023, through December 
31, 2023.

DATES: Applicable September 18, 2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jacob Saude, AD/CVD Operations, Office 
VII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, 
DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-0981.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On June 28, 2024, Commerce published the Preliminary Determination 
in this LTFV investigation in the Federal Register.\1\ On July 22, 
2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in these administrative 
proceedings by seven days.\2\ The deadline for the final determination 
is now September 11, 2024. We only received comment on the Preliminary 
Determination from CC Metals and Alloys, LLC and Ferroglobe USA, Inc. 
(collectively, the petitioners), in which the petitioners argued that 
lack of participation in this investigation should lead Commerce to 
reach the same conclusion for the final determination as it did in the 
Preliminary Determination.\3\ Subsequently, on August 28, 2024, 
Commerce published its Preliminary Critical Circumstances Determination 
in the Federal Register and invited interested parties to comment.\4\ 
No interested party submitted comments on the Preliminary Critical 
Circumstances Determination. Accordingly, we did not make any changes 
to our Preliminary Determination and there is no decision memorandum 
accompanying this Federal Register notice.
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    \1\ See Ferrosilicon from the Russian Federation: Preliminary 
Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 89 FR 
53953 (June 28, 2024) (Preliminary Determination).
    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and 
Countervailing Duty Proceedings,'' dated July 22, 2024.
    \3\ See Petitioners' Letter, ``Petitioners' Comments in Lieu of 
Case Brief,'' dated July 29, 2024; see also Preliminary 
Determination and Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
    \4\ See Ferrosilicon from the Russian Federation: Preliminary 
Affirmative Critical Circumstances Determinations, 89 FR 68860 
(August 28, 2024) (Preliminary Critical Circumstances 
Determination).
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Scope of the Investigation

    The product covered by this investigation is ferrosilicon from 
Russia. For a full description of the scope of this investigation, see 
the appendix to this notice.

Scope Comments

    On August 28, 2024, CC Metals and Alloys, LLC and Ferroglobe USA, 
INC. (collectively, the petitioners) filed a clarification of the scope 
language in which the petitioner noted that there was a word missing in 
the scope language (i.e., in the Petition and the Initiation Notice, 
the first paragraph of the scope stated: ``10 percent or less any other 
element'' and should read ``10 percent or less of any other 
element'').\5\
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    \5\ See Petitioners' Letter, ``Clarification of Scope 
Language,'' dated August 28, 2024; see also Ferrosilicon from 
Brazil, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, and the Russian Federation: Initiation 
of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations, 89 FR 31137 (April 24, 2024) 
(Initiation Notice).
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Use of Adverse Facts Available (AFA)

    Pursuant to section 776(a) and (b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as 
amended (the Act), we have continued to base the dumping margin for the 
Russia-wide entity, upon facts otherwise available, with adverse 
inferences, because Russian producers/exporters of subject merchandise 
during the POI, now part of the Russia-wide entity, failed to respond 
to Commerce's requests for information.\6\
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    \6\ See Preliminary Determination.
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Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances

    In the Preliminary Critical Circumstances Determination, Commerce 
preliminary determined, in accordance with sections 733(e) of the Act 
and 19 CFR 351.206, that critical circumstances exist with respect to 
all imports of subject merchandise from Russia produced or exported by 
the Russia-wide entity.\7\ For this final determination, in accordance 
with section 735(a)(3) of the Act, Commerce continues to find that 
critical circumstances exist with respect to all imports of subject 
merchandise from Russia produced or exported by the Russia-wide entity.
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    \7\ See Preliminary Critical Circumstances Determination.
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Combination Rates

    In the Preliminary Determination, we stated that because no 
respondent applied for a separate rate, we did not calculate producer/
exporter combination rates in accordance with our practice.\8\ This 
remains unchanged for the final determination.
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    \8\ See Preliminary Determination, 89 FR at 53953; see also 
Enforcement and Compliance's Policy Bulletin No. 05.1, regarding, 
``Separate-Rates Practice and Application of Combination Rates in 
Antidumping Investigations involving Non-Market Economy Countries,'' 
(April 5, 2005) (Policy Bulletin 05.1), available on Commerce's 
website at https://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf.
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Final Determination

    Commerce determines that the following estimated weighted-average 
dumping margins exist:

[[Page 76451]]



------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             Estimated     Cash deposit
                                             weighted-     rate adjusted
                Exporter                      average       for subsidy
                                          dumping margin      offset
                                             (percent)       (percent)
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Russia-Wide Entity......................        * 283.27          283.27
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* Rate based on AFA.

Disclosure

    Normally, Commerce discloses to parties to the proceeding the 
calculations performed in connection with a final determination within 
five days of any public announcement of the final determination or, if 
there is no public announcement, within five days of the date of 
publication of the notice of the final determination in the Federal 
Register, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b). However, because 
Commerce based the sole respondent's dumping margin on the Petition 
rate, there are no calculations to disclose.

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    Commerce will direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to 
continue to suspend liquidation of entries of the merchandise described 
in the scope of this investigation where that merchandise was entered, 
or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after June 28, 2024, 
which is the date of publication of the Preliminary Determination in 
this investigation in the Federal Register. Because we preliminarily 
determined that critical circumstances exist with respect to the 
Russia-wide entity, we instructed CBP to suspend such entries on or 
after April 24, 2024, the date of publication of the initiation notice 
in the Federal Register.\9\ Pursuant to section 733(d)(1)(B) of the Act 
and 19 CFR 351.205(d), Commerce will also instruct CBP to require the 
posting of an antidumping duty cash deposit.
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    \9\ See Preliminary Critical Circumstances Determination. We 
note that the Preliminary Critical Circumstances Determination 
indicated March 30, 2024, as the start of the suspension of 
liquidation. However, pursuant to section 703(e)(2) of the Act, the 
correct date for the start of suspension of liquidation is April 24, 
2024, which is the date of publication of the Initiation Notice.
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    Commerce normally adjusts estimated weighted-average dumping 
margins determined in an LTFV investigation by the amount of the export 
subsidies countervailed in a companion countervailing duty (CVD) 
investigation to determine the antidumping duty cash deposit rates. 
Because there is a companion CVD investigation in this case,\10\ we 
offset the estimated weighted-average dumping margins listed in the 
table above by the appropriate export subsidy rate to derive the cash 
deposit rates listed in the table.
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    \10\ See unpublished Federal Register notice for Ferrosilicon 
from the Russian Federation: Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty 
Determination and Final Affirmative Determination of Critical 
Circumstances, dated concurrently with this notice.
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    Should the provisional measures in the companion CVD investigation 
expire prior to the expiration of provisional measures in this LTFV 
investigation, Commerce will direct CBP to begin collecting estimated 
antidumping duty cash deposits equal to the estimated weighted-average 
dumping margins listed in the table above.
    The cash deposit requirements are as follows: (1) the cash deposit 
rate for the Russian Federation is the cash deposit rate listed for 
that company in the table above; (2) if the exporter of the subject 
merchandise is not identified in the table above, but the producer is, 
then the cash deposit rate will be equal to the company-specific cash 
deposit rate established for the producer of the subject merchandise; 
and (3) the cash deposit rate for all other producers and exporters 
will be equal to the all-others cash deposit rate listed in the table 
above.
    In accordance with section 703(d) of the Act, we will instruct CBP 
to discontinue the suspension of liquidation of all entries of subject 
merchandise entered or withdrawn from warehouse, on or after October 
25, 2024, the final day of provisional measures.

U.S. International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d)) of the Act, Commerce will notify 
the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) of its final affirmative 
determination of sales at LTFV. Because the final determination in this 
proceeding is affirmative, in accordance with sections 735(b)(2)) and 
777(i)(1) 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, before the later of 120 
days after the date that Commerce made its affirmative preliminary 
determination in this investigation or 45 days after the date of this 
final determination. If the ITC determines that material injury, or the 
threat of material injury, does not exist, the proceeding will be 
terminated, and all cash deposits will be refunded. If the ITC 
determines that material injury, or the threat of material injury, 
exists, 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.

Administrative Protective Order

    This notice serves as the only 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 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 violation subject to sanction.

Notification to Interested Parties

    This determination is being issued and published in accordance with 
sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.210(c).

    Dated: September 11, 2024.
Ryan Majerus,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations, performing the 
non-exclusive functions and dutiesof the Assistant Secretary for 
Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix

Scope of the Investigation

    The scope of this investigation covers all forms and sizes of 
ferrosilicon, regardless of grade, including ferrosilicon 
briquettes. Ferrosilicon is a ferroalloy containing by weight four 
percent or more iron, more than eight percent but not more than 96 
percent silicon, three percent or less phosphorus, 30 percent or 
less manganese, less than three percent magnesium, and 10 percent or 
less of any other element. The merchandise covered also includes 
product described as slag, if the product meets these 
specifications.

[[Page 76452]]

    Subject merchandise includes material matching the above 
description that has been finished, packaged, or otherwise processed 
in a third country, including by performing any grinding or any 
other finishing, packaging, or processing that would not otherwise 
remove the merchandise from the scope of the investigation if 
performed in the country of manufacture of the ferrosilicon.
    Ferrosilicon is currently classifiable under subheadings 
7202.21.1000, 7202.21.5000, 7202.21.7500, 7202.21.9000, 
7202.29.0010, and 7202.29.0050 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of 
the United States (HTSUS). While the HTSUS numbers are provided for 
convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the 
scope remains dispositive.

[FR Doc. 2024-21175 Filed 9-17-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P