The US Department of Commerce (DOC) issued Thursday its final antidumping determinations concerning imports of grain-oriented silicon steel (GOES) from Germany, Japan, and Poland. None of the foreign producers in the three countries participated in the proceedings, and as a result the DOC relied on “total adverse facts available” in assigning preliminary dumping margins to producers in each of the countries. Following the DOC’s issuance of its preliminary determinations in May, the Japanese and German producers requested that the Department fully extend the deadline for issuing its determinations into September. The US petitioners in the case opposed the requests, urging the Commerce Department to act promptly.
Because there were no further proceedings in the investigations after the Commerce Department’s preliminary determinations on May 5, 2014, the final margins are identical to the preliminary margins:
Germany: ThyssenKrupp, 241.91 percent; all others, 133.70 percent.
Japan: Nippon and JFE, 172.30 percent; all others, 93.36 percent.
Poland: Stahlprodukt, 99.51 percent; all others, 78.10 percent.
“This is a key step forward in this important case,” said David A. Hartquist of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel to petitioners. “These antidumping margins are locked in, and importers of GOES must continue paying the US government cash deposits equal to the antidumping margins on imports into the US. Final decisions by Commerce with respect to the remaining four countries, China, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Russia, are due in late September. The US International Trade Commission will hold its final hearing in the case on July 24, to determine whether dumped and subsidized imports of GOES have caused injury to US producers.”