Finished Carbon Steel Flanges From India: Preliminary Results of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review and Preliminary Intent To Rescind, in Part; 2022

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On October 18, 2023, Commerce published in the Federal Register a notice of initiation of an administrative review of the countervailing duty (CVD) order on steel flanges from India. On November 28, 2023, Commerce selected Norma (India) Ltd. (Norma) and R.N. Gupta & Company Limited (RNG) as mandatory respondents in this review. On April 5, 2024, Commerce extended the time period for issuing these preliminary results, in accordance with section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), to August 30, 2024. On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days. The deadline for the preliminary results is now September 6, 2024.

For a complete description of the events that followed the initiation of this review, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. A list of topics discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is provided as Appendix I 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.

Scope of the Order

The product covered by the Order is steel flanges from India. For a complete description of the scope of the Order, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.

Preliminary Intent To Rescind Administrative Review, in Part

It is Commerce's practice to rescind an administrative review of a CVD order, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3), when there are no reviewable entries of subject merchandise during the POR for which liquidation is suspended. Normally, upon completion of an administrative review, the suspended entries are liquidated at the countervailing duty assessment rate calculated for the review period. 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.

According to the CBP data on the record, the companies listed in Appendix III did not have reviewable entries of subject merchandise during the POR for which liquidation is suspended. Accordingly, in the absence of reviewable, suspended entries of subject merchandise during the POR, we intend to rescind this review with respect to these companies, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3). Parties are invited to comment on the intent to rescind for these companies.

Methodology

Commerce is conducting this administrative review in accordance with section 751(a)(l)(A) of the Act. For each of the subsidy programs found to be countervailable, Commerce preliminarily determines that there is a subsidy, i.e., a financial contribution by an “authority” that give rise to a benefit to the recipient, and that the subsidy is specific. For a full description of the methodology underlying our conclusions, including our reliance, in part, on facts otherwise available with adverse inferences pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.

Companies Not Selected for Individual Review

The Act and Commerce's regulations do not address the establishment of a rate to apply companies not selected for individual examination when 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 the Act, which provides instructions for calculating the all-others rate in an investigation. Section 777A(e)(2) of 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}.” Section 705(c)(5)(A) 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 rates based solely on the facts available.

Accordingly, to determine the rate for companies 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. We preliminarily find that Norma and RNG received countervailable subsidies at above de minimis rates and not based entirely on facts available. Therefore, we preliminarily determine to assign to the companies not selected for individual review a weighted average of the subsidy rates calculated for Norma and RNG using each company's publicly ranged data for the value of its exports of subject merchandise to the United States. The companies for which a review was requested, which were not selected as mandatory respondents or found to be cross-owned with a mandatory respondent, are listed in Appendix II.

Preliminary Results of Review

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