Certain High Chrome Cast Iron Grinding Media From India: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of Provisional Measures

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-533-930]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain High Chrome Cast Iron Grinding Media From India: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of Provisional Measures</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines that certain high chrome cast iron grinding media (grinding media) from India is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV). The period of investigation (POI) is April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024. Interested parties are invited to comment on this preliminary determination. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable December 6, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Charles DeFilippo, AD/CVD Operations, Office VII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-3797. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> This preliminary determination is made in accordance with section 733(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Commerce initiated this investigation on May 16, 2024. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> On September 10, 2024, Commerce postponed the preliminary determination of this investigation until November 29, 2024. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> For a complete description of the events that followed the initiation of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain High Chrome Cast Iron Grinding Media from India: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation,</E> 89 FR 45630 (May 23, 2024) ( <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings,” dated July 22, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain High Chrome Cast Iron Grinding Media from India: Postponement of Preliminary Determination in the Less-Than-FairValue Investigation,</E> 89 FR 73366 (September 10, 2024). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Affirmative Determination in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation of Certain High Chrome Cast Iron Grinding Media from India,” dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> A list of topics included in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is provided in Appendix II of this notice. The Preliminary Decision Memorandum is a public document and is on file electronically via Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS). ACCESS is available to registered users at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov.</E> In addition, a complete version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigation</HD> The product covered by this investigation is grinding media from India. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> Appendix I. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope Comments</HD> In accordance with the <E T="03">Preamble</E> to Commerce's regulations, <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> the <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> set aside a period of time for parties to raise issues regarding product coverage ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> scope). <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Certain interested parties commented on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice.</E> For a summary of the product coverage comments and rebuttal responses submitted to the record for this preliminary determination, and accompanying discussion and analysis of all comments timely received, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce is not preliminarily modifying the scope language as it appeared in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice. See</E> the scope in Appendix I to this notice. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2), interested parties may submit additional comments on the scope of this investigation in scope case briefs, which may be submitted no later than 30 days after the issuance of the Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, Final Rule,</E> 62 FR 27296, 27323 (May 19, 1997) ( <E T="03">Preamble</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See Initiation Notice,</E> 89 FR at 45631. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty Investigations of Certain High Chrome Cast Iron Grinding Media from India: Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum,” dated concurrently with this preliminary determination (Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce is conducting this investigation in accordance with section 731 of the Act. Constructed export prices have been calculated in accordance with section 772(b) of the Act. Normal value is calculated in accordance with section 773 of the Act. For a full description of the methodology underlying the preliminary determination, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">All-Others Rate</HD> Sections 733(d)(1)(ii) and 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act provide that in the preliminary determination Commerce shall determine an estimated all-others rate for all exporters and producers not individually examined. This rate shall be an amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated weighted-average dumping margins established for exporters and producers individually investigated, excluding any zero and <E T="03">de minimis</E> margins, and any margins determined entirely under section 776 of the Act. Commerce calculated an individual estimated weighted-average dumping margin for AIA Engineering Limited (AIAEL) and its affiliates (collectively, AIA), <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> the only individually examined exporter/producer  <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> in this investigation. Because the only individually calculated dumping margin is not zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or based entirely on facts otherwise available, the estimated weighted-average dumping margin calculated for AIA is the margin assigned to all other producers and exporters, pursuant to section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act. <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Preliminary Affiliation and Collapsing Memorandum for AIA Engineering Limited, Welcast Steel Limited, Vega Industries (Middle East) F.Z.C, and Vega Industries Ltd., USA,” dated concurrently with this memorandum (Collapsing Memorandum). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>  Commerce initially selected both Vega Industries and AIAEL as the two mandatory respondents for this investigation. <E T="03">See</E> Respondent Selection Memorandum, dated June 11, 2024. However, AIA requested on behalf of itself and its affiliated companies, including Vega Industries, to submit only one set of responses to Commerce's investigation. Therefore, AIAEL will have the sole calculated dumping margin in this investigation. For more information, <E T="03">see</E> Preliminary Decision Memorandum and Collapsing Memorandum. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Preliminary Determination</HD> Commerce preliminarily determines that the following estimated weighted-average dumping margins exist: <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>  Adjusted for export subsidies of 2.88 percent (comprised of 1.63 percent for the duty drawback program, 0.07 percent for the status holder incentive scheme, 0.18 percent for the interest equalization scheme, and 1.00 percent for the remission of duties and taxes on export products) for AIA. <E T="03">See Certain High Chrome Cast Iron Grinding Media from India: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, and Alignment of Final Determination with Final Antidumping Duty Determination,</E> 89 FR 80865 (October 4, 2024), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <SU>12</SU>  Commerce preliminarily determines that AIAEL and Welcast Steel Limited (Welcast) are a single entity. In addition, Commerce preliminarily determines that AIAEL is affiliated with Vega Industries (Middle East) F.Z.C (Vega ME) and Vega Industries Ltd., USA (Vega USA). <E T="03">See</E> Preliminary Decision Memorandum and Collapsing Memorandum. </FTNT> <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s100,18,18"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Exporter/producer</CHED> <CHED H="1"> Estimated weighted- average dumping <ENT>7.18</ENT> <ENT>4.30</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">All Others</ENT> <ENT>7.18</ENT> <ENT>4.30</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Suspension of Liquidation</HD> In accordance with section 733(d)(2) of the Act, Commerce will direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation of entries of subject merchandise, as described in Appendix I, entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of this notice in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Further, pursuant to section 733(d)(1)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.205(d), ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 20k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━