The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review of stainless steel sheet and strip in coils (S4 in coils) from Mexico, declaring its intention not to partially revoke the antidumping order in question.
On July 30, 2008, ThyssenKrupp Mexinox S.A. de C.V. (Mexinox S.A.) and Mexinox USA, Inc. (Mexinox USA), collectively Mexinox, requested revocation of the antidumping order on S4 in coils from Mexico with respect to Mexinox stating that: (1) The company sold subject merchandise at not less than normal value during the period of review from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, and that in the future it would not sell such merchandise at less than normal value; (2) the company has sold the subject merchandise to the US in commercial quantities during each of the past three years, and (3) the company agrees to immediate reinstatement of the antidumping duty order, if the DOC concludes that the company, subsequent to revocation, sold the subject merchandise at less than normal value. In addition, Mexinox requested the DOC to conduct an administrative review of Mexinox for the period from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008. On July 31, 2008, the petitioners, Allegheny Ludlum Corporation, AK Steel Corporation, and North American Stainless, also requested that the DOC conduct an administrative review of Mexinox for the same period.
In response to requests from the respondent Mexinox on August 26, 2008, and from the petitioners, the DOC has conducted an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on Mexican S4 in coils, covering imports of subject merchandise from Mexinox S.A. during the period July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008.
In this case, the DOC's preliminary margin calculation has shown that Mexinox sold the subject merchandise at less than normal value during the current review period. However, the DOC's regulation requires the company to certify that the company sold its subject merchandise at not less than normal value during each of the past three consecutive years. Mexinox received antidumping duty margins above de minimis in the previous two administrative reviews. According to the DOC, Mexinox has made its request predicated on the assumption that an appeal will result in recalculations for both administrative reviews of margins at zero or de minimis. However, it is not the DOC's policy to speculate regarding potential future outcome of appeals when determining whether revocation of the merchandise produced and exported by a particular company from an existing antidumping duty order is warranted. Therefore, the DOC has preliminarily found that Mexinox has sold subject merchandise at less than normal value within the period of at least three consecutive years. Accordingly, the DOC has preliminarily determined that revocation of the order with respect to Mexinox is not warranted.
Since the DOC has preliminarily determined that sales of S4 in coils from Mexico have been made below normal value, as a result of its review the DOC has preliminarily found that a 13.31 percent weighted-average dumping margin exists for Mexinox S.A. for the period July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008.
If these preliminary results are adopted in the final results of this administrative review, the DOC will instruct the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess antidumping duties based on the difference between the constructed export price and normal value. Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary results.
Furthermore, the cash deposit rate for the reviewed company will be the rate established in the final results of this review, except if the rate is less than 0.50 percent (de minimis) the cash deposit will be zero. In addition, the cash deposit rate for all other manufacturers or exporters will continue to be the all-others rate of 30.85 percent, which is the all-others rate established in the less-than-fair-value investigation.