Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 145 /Wednesday, July 29, 1998 / Notices 40433

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A–428–824]

Notice of Final Determination of Sales

at Less Than Fair Value: Stainless

Steel Wire Rod from Germany

AGENCY: Import Administration,

International Trade Administration,

Department of Commerce.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 29, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Brian Smith or Everett Kelly, Office of

AD/CVD Enforcement, Import

Administration, International Trade

Administration, U.S. Department of

Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution

Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20230;

telephone: (202) 482–1766 or (202) 482–

4194.

The Applicable Statute

Unless otherwise indicated, all

citations to the Tariff Act of 1930, as

amended (‘‘the Act’’), are references to

the provisions effective January 1, 1995,

the effective date of the amendments

made to the Act by the Uruguay Round

Agreements Act (‘‘URAA’’). In addition,

unless otherwise indicated, all citations

to the Department of Commerce’s

(‘‘Department’’) regulations are to the

regulations at 19 CFR Part 351 (62 FR

27296, May 19, 1997).

Final Determination

We determine that stainless steel wire

rod (‘‘SSWR’’) from Germany is being

sold in the United States at less than fair

value (‘‘LTFV’’), as provided in section

735 of the Act. The estimated margins

of sales at LTFV are shown in the

‘‘Continuation of Suspension of

Liquidation’’ section of this notice.

Case History

On February 25, 1998, we issued our

preliminary determination in this

investigation (63 FR 10847, March 5,

1998) (‘‘Notice of Preliminary

Determination’’).

On March 10, 1998, at the request of

Krupp Edestahlprofile GmbH and Krupp

Hoesch Steel Products Inc. (collectively

‘‘Krupp’’), producers/exporters of the

subject merchandise, the Department

postponed the final determination to

135 days after the publication of the

Department’s preliminary determination

(see Notice of Postponement of Final

Antidumping Determination (63 FR

13082, March 17, 1998)).

We received no case briefs or other

written comments from interested

parties in this investigation.

Scope of Investigation

For purposes of this investigation,

SSWR comprises products that are hotrolled or hot-rolled annealed and/or

pickled and/or descaled rounds,

squares, octagons, hexagons or other

shapes, in coils, that may also be coated

with a lubricant containing copper, lime

or oxalate. SSWR is made of alloy steels

containing, by weight, 1.2 percent or

less of carbon and 10.5 percent or more

of chromium, with or without other

elements. These products are

manufactured only by hot-rolling or hotrolling, annealing, and/or pickling and/

or descaling, are normally sold in coiled

form, and are of solid cross-section. The

majority of SSWR sold in the United

States is round in cross-sectional shape,

annealed and pickled, and later coldfinished into stainless steel wire or

small-diameter bar.

The most common size for such

products is 5.5 millimeters or 0.217

inches in diameter, which represents

the smallest size that normally is

produced on a rolling mill and is the

size that most wire-drawing machines

are set up to draw. The range of SSWR

sizes normally sold in the United States

is between 0.20 inches and 1.312 inches

in diameter. Two stainless steel grades,

SF20T and K-M35FL, are excluded from

the scope of the investigation. The

chemical makeup for the excluded

grades is as follows:

SF20T

Carbon ....................... 0.05 max.

Manganese ................ 2.00 max.

Phosphorous ............. 0.05 max.

Sulfur ......................... 0.15 max.

Silicon ........................ 1.00 max.

Chromium .................. 19.00/21.00.

Molybdenum .............. 1.50/2.50.

Lead added ............... (0.10/0.30).

Tellurium added ........ (0.03 min).

K–M35FL

Carbon ....................... 0.015 max.

Silicon ........................ 0.70/1.00.

Manganese ................ 0.40 max.

Phosphorous ............. 0.04 max.

Sulfur ......................... 0.03 max.

Nickel ......................... 0.30 max.

Chromium .................. 12.50/14.00.

Lead .......................... 0.10/0.30.

Aluminum .................. 0.20/0.35.

The products under investigation are

currently classifiable under subheadings

7221.00.0005, 7221.00.0015,

7221.00.0030, 7221.00.0045, and

7221.00.0075 of the Harmonized Tariff

Schedule of the United States

(‘‘HTSUS’’). Although the HTSUS

subheadings are provided for

convenience and customs purposes, the

written description of the scope of this

investigation is dispositive.

Period of Investigation

The period of investigation (‘‘POI’’) is

July 1, 1996 through June 30, 1997.

Facts Available

In its preliminary determination, the

Department found that both Krupp and

BGH Edelstahl Freital GmbH (‘‘BGH

Edelstahl’’) failed to cooperate to the

best of their ability in this investigation,

as they refused to respond to the

Department’s antidumping

questionnaire (see Notice of Preliminary

Determination). Accordingly, the

Department based the antidumping

margin for these companies on facts

otherwise available and assigned them

the highest margin from the petition (as

adjusted by the Department), 21.28

percent. In making its preliminary

determination, the Department

corroborated the information contained

in the petition within the meaning of

section 776(c) of the Act, to the extent

possible, and found the information to

have probative value. Since the

preliminary determination, no party

(including Krupp and BGH Edelstahl)

has presented to the Department any

information to challenge the

appropriateness of using the

information contained in the petition as

facts available in determining the

dumping margin for Krupp and BGH

Edelstahl. Accordingly, for the final

determination, we continue to assign

Krupp and BGH Edelstahl the highest

margin from the petition (as adjusted by

the Department), 21.28 percent.

The All-Others Rate

As discussed in the Notice of

Preliminary Determination, we based

the all-others rate on a simple average

of the margins in the petition (as

adjusted by the Department), 19.45

percent. Section 735(c)(5) of the Act

provides that where the dumping

margins established for all exporters and

producers individually investigated are

determined entirely under section 776,

the Department ‘‘. . . may use any

reasonable method to establish the

estimated all-others rate for exporters

and producers not individually

investigated, including averaging the

estimated weighted average dumping

margins determined for the exporters

and producers individually

investigated.’’ This provision

contemplates that we weight average the

facts-available margins to establish the
40434 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 145 /Wednesday, July 29, 1998 / Notices

all-others rate. Where the data is not

available to weight average the facts

available rates, the Statement of

Administrative Action accompanying

the URAA, H.R. Rep. No. 103–316,

(‘‘SAA’’), at 873, provides that we may

use other reasonable methods. Inasmuch

as we do not have the data necessary to

weight average the respondents’ facts

available margins, we are continuing to

base the all-others rate on a simple

average of the margins in the petition (as

adjusted by the Department), 19.45

percent.

Continuation of Suspension of

Liquidation

In accordance with section

735(c)(4)(A) of the Act, we are directing

the Customs Service to continue to

suspend liquidation of all entries of

stainless steel wire rod from Germany,

as defined in the ‘‘Scope of

Investigation’’ section of this notice, that

are entered, or withdrawn from

warehouse, for consumption on or after

March 5, 1998, the date of publication

of our preliminary determination in the

Federal Register. For these entries, the

Customs Service will require a cash

deposit or posting of a bond equal to the

estimated amount by which the normal

value exceeds the export price as shown

below. This suspension of liquidation

will remain in effect until further notice.

MFR/Producer/Exporter Margin

percentage

Krupp Edelstahlprofile

GmbH, Krupp Hoesch

Steel Products ................... 21.28

BGH Edelstahl Freital GmbH 21.28

All-Others .............................. 19.45

The all-others rate applies to all

entries of subject merchandise except

for the entries of merchandise produced

by the exporters/manufacturers listed

above.

ITC Notification

In accordance with section 735(d) of

the Act, we have notified the

International Trade Commission (‘‘ITC’’)

of our determination. As our final

determination is affirmative, the ITC

will determine whether these imports

are causing material injury, or threat of

material injury, to the industry within

45 days of its receipt of this notification.

If the ITC determines that material

injury, or threat of material injury, does

not exist, the proceeding will be

terminated and all securities posted will

be refunded or canceled. If the ITC

determines that such injury does exist,

the Department will issue an

antidumping duty order directing

Customs officials to assess 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.

This determination is published

pursuant to section 777(i) of the Act.

Dated: July 20, 1998.

Joseph A. Spetrini,

Acting Assistant Secretary for Import

Administration.

[FR Doc. 98–20019 Filed 7–28–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

(A–588–843)

Notice of Final Determination of Sales

at Less Than Fair Value: Stainless

Steel Wire Rod from Japan

AGENCY: Import Administration,

International Trade Administration,

Department of Commerce.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 29, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Sunkyu Kim or John Maloney, Import

Administration, International Trade

Administration, U.S. Department of

Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution

Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20230;

telephone: (202) 482–2613 or (202) 482–

1503, respectively.

Applicable Statute and Regulations

Unless otherwise indicated, all

citations to the Tariff Act of 1930, as

amended (the Act), are references to the

provisions effective January 1, 1995, the

effective date of the amendments made

to the Act by the Uruguay Round

Agreements Act (URAA). In addition,

unless otherwise indicated, all citations

to the Department of Commerce’s (the

Department’s) regulations are to the

regulations codified at 19 CFR part 351,

62 FR 27296 (May 19, 1997).

Final Determination

We determine that stainless steel wire

rod (SSWR) from Japan is being sold in

the United States at less than fair value

(LTFV), as provided in section 735 of

the Act. The estimated margins of sales

at LTFV are shown in the ‘‘Continuation

of Suspension of Liquidation’’ section of

this notice, below.

Case History

Since the preliminary determination

in this investigation on February 25,

1998 (see Notice of Preliminary

Determination of Sales at Less Than

Fair Value and Postponement of Final

Determination: Stainless Steel Wire Rod

from Japan, 63 FR 10854 (March 5,

1998) (Preliminary Determination)), the

following events have occurred:

In February 1998, we issued

supplemental requests for information

to the three participating respondents in

this case: Daido Steel Co., Ltd. (Daido);

Nippon Steel Corp. (Nippon); and

Hitachi Metals, Ltd. (Hitachi)

(collectively, the respondents). We

received responses in February and

March 1998.

In March 1998, we received revised

cost data from Nippon reflecting cost

breakouts for ultra-fine (UF) rod, and we

received revised sales and cost

information from Daido. In addition, on

March 18, 1998, we issued an amended

preliminary determination in this

investigation (see Notice of Amended

Preliminary Determination of Sales at

Less Than Fair Value: Stainless Steel

Wire Rod from Japan, 63 FR 14066

(March 24, 1998)).

In March and April 1998, we verified

the questionnaire responses of the

respondents. In May and June 1998, the

respondents submitted revised sales

databases, reflecting verification

revisions, at the Department’s request.

On June 1, 1998, the petitioners (i.e.,

AL Tech Specialty Steel Corp.,

Carpenter Technology Corp., Republic

Engineered Steels, Talley Metals

Technology, Inc., and the United Steel

Workers of America, AFL–CIO/CLC),

and Nippon and Hitachi submitted case

briefs. On June 8, 1998, the petitioners

and the respondents submitted rebuttal

briefs. The Department held a public

hearing on June 10, 1998.

Scope of Investigation

For purposes of this investigation,

SSWR comprises products that are hotrolled or hot-rolled annealed and/or

pickled and/or descaled rounds,

squares, octagons, hexagons or other

shapes, in coils, that may also be coated

with a lubricant containing copper, lime

or oxalate. SSWR is made of alloy steels

containing, by weight, 1.2 percent or

less of carbon and 10.5 percent or more

of chromium, with or without other

elements. These products are

manufactured only by hot-rolling or hotrolling, annealing, and/or pickling and/

or descaling, are normally sold in coiled

form, and are of solid cross-section. The

majority of SSWR sold in the United

States is round in cross-sectional shape,

annealed and pickled, and later coldfinished into stainless steel wire or

small-diameter bar.

The most common size for such

products is 5.5 millimeters or 0.217

inches in diameter, which represents

the smallest size that normally is

produced on a rolling mill and is the