Opinion ID: 208083
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Commerce's Color-Specific Valuations of Ningbo's PET Flake

Text: As indicated above, Ningbo also argues that Commerce diverted invoices fairly attributable to white and green PET flake and added them to the average for brown, the least expensive PET flake. In support, Ningbo points to the following verified facts suggesting that the actual cost of white flake was lower than Commerce's constructed value: (1) the invoices Commerce relied on to value white PET flake reflected the highest cost PET flake Ningbo purchased during the period of investigation; (2) Ningbo's PSF production is 60% white PSF; (3) white PSF is made almost entirely from white PET flake; and (4) the amount of white PET flake reflected by the white-indicating invoices was significantly less than required to produce the amount of white PSF Ningbo actually manufactured during the period of investigation. Consequently, non-color-specific invoices from purchases of relatively lower-priced white PET flake were necessarily excluded from Commerce's calculation. Ningbo reasons that Commerce's constructed color-specific PET flake valuations are thus clearly and demonstrably inaccurate. The court disagrees. Despite some evidence detracting from its weight, substantial record evidence supports Commerce's valuations. To begin, for the reasons discussed above, no exact correlation between Ningbo's PET flake purchases and PSF production is possible based on the incomplete information on the record. Commerce's constructed prices for white, green, and brown PET flake (which are confidential) approximate the relative price differences between white and green and white and brown PET flake that Ningbo employees reported to Commerce during its verification visit. Moreover, Commerce's calculated values are identical to the prices derived from co-respondent Cixi Jiangnan's [6] color-specific market economy invoices and are comparable to the prices listed in Ningbo's internal inventory allocation chart from one month during the period of investigation. Although Cixi's prices were for washed PET flake, while Ningbo purchased only less expensive, unwashed flake, this evidence is nonetheless more than a mere scintilla supporting Commerce's valuations. Finally and most significantly, as the Court of International Trade found, Ningbo has not demonstrated that Commerce's constructed prices resulted in higher dumping margins than if Ningbo had provided actual PET flake purchases by color. See Ningbo Dafa, 577 F.Supp.2d at 1311. In sum, Commerce's determination appears to reflect a reasonable approximation in light of Ningbo's actual record keeping. Substantial evidence is a deferential standard of review, which requires only that a determination be supported by `such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.' SKF USA, 537 F.3d at 1378 (quoting Consol. Edison, 305 U.S. at 229, 59 S.Ct. 206). Commerce's methodology and resulting color-specific PET flake valuations, while not perfect, are supported by substantial evidence.