EN Official Journal of the European Union C 287/5

Notice of initiation of a partial interim review of the anti-dumping measures applicable to imports of silicon originating in the People's Republic of China

(2015/C 287/06)

The European Commission (‘the Commission’) has received a request 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. Request for review

The request for review was lodged by EUSMET — European Users of Silicon Metal (‘the applicant’), an ad hoc association of Union chemical users of silicon.

The partial interim review is limited in scope to the examination of injury.

2. Product under review

The product subject to this review is silicon (‘the product under review’), currently falling within CN code 2804 69 00.

3. Existing measures

The measures currently in force are a definitive anti-dumping duty imposed by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 467/2010 (2), as extended to imports of silicon consigned from the Republic of Korea, whether declared as originating in the Republic of Korea or not; and extended to imports of silicon consigned from Taiwan whether declared as originating in Taiwan or not, by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 311/2013 (3) (‘the existing measures’).

On 28 May 2015, the Commission published a Notice of initiation of an expiry review of the anti-dumping duty applicable to imports of silicon originating in the People's Republic of China (4). Pending the completion of the expiry review investigation, the measures continue to be in force.

4. Grounds for the partial interim review

The request pursuant to Article 11(3) is based on prima facie evidence provided by the applicant that as far as injury 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.

These changes relate to the composition and the structure of the Union industry, to the silicon demand in the Union, to the economic situation of the Union producers and to the Union supply pattern.

Therefore, the applicant alleges 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 injury, the Commission hereby initiates a review in accordance with Article 11(3) of the basic Regulation.

5.1. Review investigation period and period considered

The investigation will cover the period from 1 April 2014-31 March 2015 (‘the review investigation period’).

5.2. Procedure for the determination of injury

Exporting producers (5) of the product under review from the country concerned, including those that did not cooperate in the investigation(s) leading to the measures in force, are invited to participate in the Commission investigation.

5.2.1. Investigating exporting producers

5.2.1.1. Procedure for selecting exporting producers to be investigated in the People's Republic of China

Sampling

In view of the potentially large number of exporting producers in the country concerned involved in this interim review and in order to complete the investigation within the statutory time limits, the Commission may limit the exporting producers to be investigated to a reasonable number by selecting a sample (this process is also referred to as ‘sampling’). The sampling will be carried out in accordance with Article 17 of the basic Regulation.

In order to enable the Commission to decide whether sampling is necessary, and if so, to select a sample, all exporting producers, or representatives acting on their behalf, including the ones who did not cooperate in the investigation leading to the measures subject to the present review, are hereby requested to make themselves known to the Commission. These parties have to do so within 15 days of the date of publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, unless otherwise specified, by providing the Commission with the information on their company(-ies) requested in Annex I to this Notice.

In order to obtain the information it deems necessary for the selection of the sample of exporting producers, the Commission will also contact the authorities of the People's Republic of China and may contact any known associations of exporting producers.

All interested parties wishing to submit any other relevant information regarding the selection of the sample, excluding the information requested above, must do so within 21 days of the publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, unless otherwise specified.

If a sample is necessary, the exporting producers may be selected based on the largest representative volume of exports to the Union which can reasonably be investigated within the time available. All known exporting producers, the authorities of the country concerned and associations of exporting producers will be notified by the Commission, via the authorities of the country concerned, if appropriate, of the companies selected to be in the sample.

In order to obtain the information it deems necessary for its investigation with regard to exporting producers, the Commission will send questionnaires to the exporting producers selected to be in the sample, to any known association of exporting producers and to the authorities of the country concerned.

All exporting producers selected to be in the sample will have to submit a completed questionnaire within 37 days from the date of notification of the sample selection, unless otherwise specified.

Without prejudice to the possible application of Article 18 of the basic Regulation, companies that have agreed to their possible inclusion in the sample but are not selected to be in the sample will be considered to be cooperating (‘non-sampled cooperating exporting producers’).

5.3. Investigating unrelated importers (6) (7)

Unrelated importers of the product under review from the country concerned to the Union are invited to participate in this investigation.

In view of the potentially large number of unrelated importers involved in this interim review and in order to complete the investigation within the statutory time limits, the Commission may limit to a reasonable number the unrelated importers that will be investigated by selecting a sample (this process is also referred to as ‘sampling’). The sampling will be carried out in accordance with Article 17 of the basic Regulation.

In order to enable the Commission to decide whether sampling is necessary and, if so, to select a sample, all unrelated importers, or representatives acting on their behalf, including the ones who did not cooperate in the investigation leading to the measures subject to the present review, are hereby requested to make themselves known to the Commission. These parties must do so within 15 days of the date of publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, unless otherwise specified, by providing the Commission with the information on their company(ies) requested in Annex II to this Notice.

In order to obtain information it deems necessary for the selection of the sample of unrelated importers, the Commission may also contact any known associations of importers.

All interested parties wishing to submit any other relevant information regarding the selection of the sample, excluding the information requested above, must do so within 21 days of the publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, unless otherwise specified.

If a sample is necessary, the importers may be selected based on the largest representative volume of sales of the product under review in the Union which can reasonably be investigated within the time available. All known unrelated importers and associations of importers will be notified by the Commission of the companies selected to be in the sample.

In order to obtain the information it deems necessary for its investigation, the Commission will send questionnaires to the sampled unrelated importers and to any known association of importers. Sampled importers must submit a completed questionnaire within 37 days from the date of the notification of the sample selection, unless otherwise specified.

5.4. Investigating Union producers

In order to establish whether there is injury to the Union industry, Union producers of the product under review are invited to participate in the Commission investigation.

In order to obtain the information it deems necessary for its investigation with regard to Union producers the Commission will send questionnaires to known Union producers or representative Union producers and to any known association of Union producers, namely to:

— Ferropem,

— Ferroatlantica S.L.,

— RW. Silicium GmbH,

— Comité de Liaison des Industries de Ferro-Alliages (Euroalliages).

The aforementioned Union producers 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.

Any Union producer and association of Union producers not listed above is invited to contact the Commission, preferably by email, immediately but no later than 15 days after the publication of this Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, unless otherwise specified, in order to make itself known and request a questionnaire.

5.5. 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.

5.6. 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.

5.7. 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’ (8).

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 email 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 email, 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 email address and they should ensure that the provided email address is a functioning official business email which is checked on a daily basis. Once contact details are provided, the Commission will communicate with interested parties by email 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 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 Email addresses for correspondence: For exporting producers : TRADE-AD-SILICON-DUMPING@ec.europa.eu For injury aspects : TRADE-AD-SILICON-INJURY@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 injury.

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 of 18 December 2000 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 (9).

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

(2) Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 467/2010 of 25 May 2010 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of silicon originating in the People's Republic of China, as extended to imports of silicon consigned from the Republic of Korea, whether declared as originating in the Republic of Korea or not, following an expiry review pursuant to Article 11(2) and a partial interim review pursuant to Article 11(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1225/2009 (OJ L 131, 29.5.2010, p. 1).

(3) Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 311/2013 of 3 April 2013 extending the definitive anti-dumping duty imposed by Implementing Regulation (EU) No 467/2010 on imports of silicon originating in the People's Republic of China to imports of silicon consigned from Taiwan, whether declared as originating in Taiwan or not (OJ L 95, 5.4.2013, p. 1).

(4) Notice of initiation of an expiry review of the anti-dumping measures applicable to imports of silicon originating in the People's Republic of China (OJ C 174, 28.5.2015, p. 10).

(5) An exporting producer is any company in the country(ies) concerned which produces and exports the product under investigation to the Union market, either directly or via third party, including any of its related companies involved in the production, domestic sales or exports of the product under investigation.

(6) Only importers not related to exporting producers can be sampled. Importers that are related to exporting producers have to fill in Annex 1 to the questionnaire for these exporting producers. For the definition of a related party see footnote 3 in Annex I or footnote 6 in Annex II.

(7) The data provided by unrelated importers may also be used in relation to aspects of this investigation other than the determination of dumping.

(8) 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).

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

ANNEX I