EN Official Journal of the European Union C 411/4

Notice of initiation of a partial interim review of the anti-dumping measures applicable to imports of certain stainless steel wires originating in India

(2015/C 411/04)

The European Commission (‘the Commission’) has received two requests for a partial interim review pursuant to Article 11(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1225/2009 of 30 November 2009 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Community (1) (‘the basic Regulation’).

1. Requests for review

One request for review was lodged by the Venus group (‘Venus’ or ‘the group’), an exporting producer group from India (‘the country concerned’). Venus group includes the companies Venus Wire Industries Pvt. Ltd, Precision Metals, Hindustan Inox. Ltd and Sieves Manufacturer India, Pvt. Ltd Another request for review was lodged by Garg Inox Ltd (‘Garg’), an exporting producer from India (both companies referred together as ‘the applicants’).

The partial interim review is limited in scope to the examination of dumping as far as the applicants are concerned.

2. Product under review

The product under investigation is defined as stainless steel wires containing by weight:

— 2,5 % or more of nickel, other than wire containing by weight 28 % or more but not more than 31 % of nickel and 20 % or more but not more than 22 % of chromium,

— less than 2,5 % of nickel, other than wire containing by weight 13 % or more but not more than 25 % of chromium and 3,5 % or more but not more than 6 % of aluminium,

originating in India, currently falling within CN codes 7223 00 19 and 7223 00 99 (‘the product under review’).

3. Existing measures

The measures currently in force are a definitive anti-dumping duty imposed by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1106/2013 (2) as last amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1483 (3) (‘the existing measures’).

4. Grounds for the partial interim review

The requests pursuant to Article 11(3) are based on prima facie evidence provided by the applicants that, as far as the applicants are concerned and as far as dumping is concerned, the circumstances on the basis of which the existing measures were imposed have changed and that these changes are of a lasting nature.

The change in circumstances of a lasting nature regarding Venus concerns improvements in its cost allocation system, to its inventory management system and to its accounting software. All these elements were found deficient in the original investigation and led to the use of Article 18 of the basic Regulation. Moreover the group invested recently in several new high efficiency machines, resulting in a substantial positive impact on its production cost efficiency.

Regarding Garg, the change in circumstances of a lasting nature is related to the restructuring of its production facilities and its sales channel in the EU. According to the prima facie evidence provided by Garg, this change in circumstances improved its asset utilisation and increased its efficiencies.

Both Venus and Garg have provided prima facie evidence showing that the continued imposition of the measures at their current level is no longer necessary to counteract the injurious dumping. Venus and Garg have compared the normal value with the export price (at ex-works level) of the product under investigation when sold for export to the Union for the period April 2014 to December 2014 and for the period April 2014 to March 2015 respectively. These comparisons indicate that for both companies, their respective dumping margins appear to be lower than the current level of the measures.

Therefore, the applicants allege that the continued imposition of the measures at the existing level, which was based on the level of dumping previously established, appears to be no longer necessary to offset the effects of injurious dumping as previously established.

5. Procedure

Having determined, after informing the Member States, that sufficient evidence exists to justify the initiation of a partial interim review limited to the examination of dumping, the Commission hereby initiates a review in accordance with Article 11(3) of the basic Regulation.

The investigation will assess the need for the continuation, removal or amendment of the existing measures in respect of the applicants.

5.1. Review investigation period and period considered

The investigation will cover the period from 1 October 2014–30 September 2015 (‘the review investigation period’).

5.2. Investigating the exporting producer

In order to obtain the information it deems necessary for its investigation with regard to the applicants, the Commission will send a questionnaire to the applicants.

The applicants must submit the completed questionnaire within 37 days of the date of publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, unless otherwise specified.

5.3. Other written submissions

Subject to the provisions of this Notice, all interested parties are hereby invited to make their views known, submit information and provide supporting evidence. Unless otherwise specified, this information and supporting evidence must reach the Commission within 37 days of the date of publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union.

5.4. Possibility to be heard by the Commission investigation services

All interested parties may request to be heard by the Commission investigation services. Any request to be heard must be made in writing and must specify the reasons for the request. For hearings on issues pertaining to the initial stage of the investigation the request must be submitted within 15 days of the date of publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union. Thereafter, a request to be heard must be submitted within the specific deadlines set by the Commission in its communication with the parties.

5.5. Instructions for making written submissions and sending completed questionnaires and correspondence

Information submitted to the Commission for the purpose of trade defence investigations shall be free from copyrights. Interested parties, before submitting to the Commission information and/or data which is subject to third party copyrights, must request specific permission to the copyright holder explicitly allowing a) the Commission to use the information and data for the purpose of this trade defence proceeding and b) to provide the information and/or data to interested parties to this investigation in a form that allows them to exercise their rights of defence.

All written submissions, including the information requested in this Notice, completed questionnaires and correspondence provided by interested parties for which confidential treatment is requested shall be labelled ‘Limited’ (4).

Interested parties providing ‘Limited’ information are required to furnish non-confidential summaries of it pursuant to Article 19(2) of the basic Regulation, which will be labelled ‘For inspection by interested parties’. These summaries must be sufficiently detailed to permit a reasonable understanding of the substance of the information submitted in confidence. If an interested party providing confidential information does not furnish a non-confidential summary of it in the requested format and quality, such information may be disregarded.

Interested parties are invited to make all submissions and requests by e-mail including scanned powers of attorney and certification sheets, with the exception of voluminous replies which shall be submitted on a CD-ROM or DVD by hand or by registered mail. By using e-mail, interested parties express their agreement with the rules applicable to electronic submissions contained in the document ‘CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN TRADE DEFENCE CASES’ published on the website of the Directorate-General for Trade: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2011/june/tradoc_148003.pdf The interested parties must indicate their name, address, telephone and a valid e-mail address and they should ensure that the provided e-mail address is a functioning official business e-mail which is checked on a daily basis. Once contact details are provided, the Commission will communicate with interested parties by e-mail only, unless they explicitly request to receive all documents from the Commission by another means of communication or unless the nature of the document to be sent requires the use of a registered mail. For further rules and information concerning correspondence with the Commission including principles that apply to submissions by e-mail, interested parties should consult the communication instructions with interested parties referred to above.

Commission address for correspondence:

European Commission Directorate-General for Trade Directorate H Office: CHAR 04/039 1040 Bruxelles/Brussel BELGIQUE/BELGIË E-mail: TRADE-AD-STEEL-WIRES-DUMPING@ec.europa.eu

6. Non-cooperation

In cases where any interested party refuses access to or does not provide the necessary information within the time limits, or significantly impedes the investigation, findings, affirmative or negative, may be made on the basis of facts available, in accordance with Article 18 of the basic Regulation.

Where it is found that any interested party has supplied false or misleading information, the information may be disregarded and use may be made of facts available.

If an interested party does not cooperate or cooperates only partially and findings are therefore based on facts available in accordance with Article 18 of the basic Regulation, the result may be less favourable to that party than if it had cooperated.

Failure to give a computerised response shall not be deemed to constitute non-cooperation, provided that the interested party shows that presenting the response as requested would result in an unreasonable extra burden or unreasonable additional cost. The interested party should immediately contact the Commission.

7. Hearing Officer

Interested parties may request the intervention of the Hearing Officer in trade proceedings. The Hearing Officer acts as an interface between the interested parties and the Commission investigation services. The Hearing Officer reviews requests for access to the file, disputes regarding the confidentiality of documents, requests for extension of time limits and requests by third parties to be heard. The Hearing Officer may organise a hearing with an individual interested party and mediate to ensure that the interested parties’ rights of defence are being fully exercised.

A request for a hearing with the Hearing Officer should be made in writing and should specify the reasons for the request. For hearings on issues pertaining to the initial stage of the investigation the request must be submitted within 15 days of the date of publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union. Thereafter, a request to be heard must be submitted within specific deadlines set by the Commission in its communication with the parties.

The Hearing Officer will also provide opportunities for a hearing involving parties to take place which would allow different views to be presented and rebuttal arguments offered on issues pertaining, among other things to dumping.

For further information and contact details interested parties may consult the Hearing Officer’s web pages on DG Trade’s website: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/trade-policy-and-you/contacts/hearing-officer/

8. Schedule of the investigation

The investigation will be concluded, pursuant to Article 11(5) of the basic Regulation within 15 months of the date of the publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union.

9. Processing of personal data

Any personal data collected in this investigation will be treated in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (5).

(1) OJ L 343, 22.12.2009, p. 51.

(2) Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1106/2013 of 5 November 2013 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty and collecting definitively the provisional duty imposed on imports of certain stainless steel wires originating in India (OJ L 298, 8.11.2013, p. 1.)

(3) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1483 of 1 September 2015 amending Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1106/2013 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty and collecting definitively the provisional duty imposed on imports of certain stainless steel wires originating in India following an absorption reinvestigation pursuant to Article 12 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1225/2009 (OJ L 228, 2.9.2015, p. 1).

(4) A ‘Limited’ document is a document which is considered confidential pursuant to Article 19 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1225/2009 (OJ L 343 22.12.2009, p. 51) and Article 6 of the WTO Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the GATT 1994 (Anti-Dumping Agreement). It is also a document protected pursuant to Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43).

(5) OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1.