Opinion ID: 761512
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Factory Overhead

Text: 26 In calculating the proper amount of factory overhead, Commerce relied on information obtained during an antidumping investigation of a Brazilian silicomanganese producer. See MagCorp I, 938 F.Supp. at 896. MagCorp argues that Commerce improperly excluded the extra expenses regularly incurred for electrolytic cell rebuilds in Russian magnesium factories which are not regularly incurred in Brazilian silicomanganese factories. The Brazilian manufacturers do not incur cell rebuild costs because they use silicomanganese furnaces, which, according to MagCorp, require less repair. MagCorp couches this as a factual challenge under the substantial evidence standard. However, this is a legal issue, not a factual one. 27 Factory overhead is composed of many elements, and 19 U.S.C. § 1677b(c)(4) gives Commerce broad discretion in valuing the factors of production on which factory overhead is based. Nothing in the statute requires Commerce to value each individual element in the non-market economy. As the Court of International Trade noted, Commerce is not required to do an item-by-item analysis in calculating factory overhead. See id. at 897. Rather, Commerce followed the requirements of the statute by relying on publicly available information of factory overhead costs of a Brazilian silicomanganese producer. As factory overhead is composed of many different elements, the cost for individual items may depend largely on the accounting method used by the particular factory. See id. Given these uncertainties, the broad statutory mandate directing Commerce to use, to the extent possible, the prices or costs of factors of production in a comparable market economy country does not require item-by-item accounting for factory overhead. For this reason, MagCorp's challenge to Commerce's use of Brazilian silicomanganese producer information fails. Therefore, we affirm the judgment of the Court of International Trade affirming Commerce's determination regarding factory overhead costs.