Certain Epoxy Resins From the Republic of Korea: Amended Preliminary Determination of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-580-919]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Epoxy Resins From the Republic of Korea: Amended Preliminary Determination of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation</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) is amending its preliminary affirmative determination in the less-than-fair-value (LTFV) investigation of certain epoxy resins (epoxy resins) from the Republic of Korea (Korea) to correct for a significant ministerial error. The period of investigation (POI) is April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable December 13, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Joy Zhang or Laura Delgado, AD/CVD Operations, Office III, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-1168 or (202) 482-1468, respectively. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> On November 13, 2024, Commerce published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> its preliminary affirmative determination in the LTFV investigation of epoxy resins from Korea. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On November 18, 2024, a mandatory respondent, Kumho P&B Chemicals (Kumho P&B), timely alleged that Commerce made a significant ministerial error in calculating its estimated weighted-average dumping margin. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Epoxy Resins from the Republic of Korea: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Preliminary Negative Critical Circumstances Determination, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of Provisional Measures,</E> 89 FR 89605 (November 13, 2024) ( <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> ), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum (PDM). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Kumho P&B's Letter, “Kumho P&B's Ministerial Error Allegation,” dated November 18, 2024. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigation</HD> The products covered by this investigation are epoxy resins from Korea. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> the Appendix. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Legal Framework</HD> A ministerial error is defined as including “errors in addition, subtraction, or other arithmetic function, clerical error resulting from inaccurate copying, duplication, or the like, and any other similar type of unintentional error which {Commerce} considers ministerial.”  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> A ministerial error is considered to be “significant” if its correction, either singly or in combination with other errors, would result in: (1) a change of at least five absolute percentage points in, but not less than 25 percent of, the weighted-average dumping margin calculated in the preliminary determination; or (2) a difference between a weighted-average dumping margin of zero (or <E T="03">de minimis</E> ) and a weighted-average dumping margin of greater than <E T="03">de minimis</E> or vice versa. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.224(e), Commerce “will analyze any comments received and, if appropriate, correct any significant ministerial error by amending the preliminary determination.” <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> section 735(e) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act); <E T="03">see also</E> 19 CFR 351.224(f). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.224(g). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Analysis of Significant Ministerial Error</HD> In the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination,</E> Commerce made a significant ministerial error within the meaning of section 735(e) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.224(f) and (g)(1) in calculating the estimated weighted-average dumping margin for Kumho P&B. Accordingly, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.224(e), Commerce is amending its <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> to correct for this significant ministerial error by revising the weighted-average dumping margins for Kumho P&B and all other producers and/or exporters. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> For a detailed discussion of the alleged ministerial error, as well as Commerce's analysis, <E T="03">see</E> the Ministerial Error Memorandum. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See Preliminary Determination,</E> 89 FR at 89605 (“{The all-others rate} shall be an amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated weighted-average dumping margins established for exporters and producers individually investigated”). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation of Epoxy Resins from the Republic of Korea: Ministerial Error Allegations Regarding the Preliminary Determination,” dated concurrently with this notice (Ministerial Error Memorandum) at 2-3. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Amended Preliminary Determination</HD> As a result of correcting the significant ministerial error, Commerce determines the following estimated weighted-average dumping margins exist: <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s50,15,xs68"> <CHED H="1">Exporter/producer</CHED> <CHED H="1"> Estimated weighted-average <ENT I="01">Kukdo Chemical Co., Ltd./Kukdo Finechem</ENT> <ENT>24.65</ENT> <ENT>Not Applicable.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01"> Kumho P&B Chemicals, Inc. <SU>8</SU> </ENT> <ENT>7.19</ENT> <ENT>Not Applicable.</ENT> <ENT>18.39</ENT> <ENT>Not Applicable.</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">  Commerce will normally adjust cash deposits for estimated antidumping duties by the amount of export subsidies countervailed in a companion countervailing duty (CVD) proceeding. However, because Commerce made a preliminary negative finding in the companion CVD proceeding, no such adjustment is warranted. <E T="03">See Certain Epoxy Resins from the Republic of Korea: Preliminary Negative Countervailing Duty Determination, Preliminary Negative Critical Circumstances Determination and Alignment of Final Determination with Final Antidumping Duty Determination,</E> 89 FR 74912, (September 13, 2024), and accompanying PDM at 6-7. <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Amended Preliminary Determination Analysis Memorandum for Kumho P&B,” dated concurrently with this notice. <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Amended All-Others Rate Calculation,” dated concurrently with this notice. </FTNT> We intend to disclose the calculations performed for this amended preliminary determination to parties within five days after public announcement or, if there is no public announcement, within five days of the date of publication of this notice, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Amended Cash Deposits and Suspension of Liquidation</HD> The collection of cash deposits and suspension of liquidation will be revised according to the rates calculated in this amended preliminary determination, in accordance with section 733(d) of the Act. Because the amended rate for Kumho P&B and all other producers and/or exporters result in decreased cash deposit rates, they will be effective retroactively to November 13, 2024, the date of publication of the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination.</E> We will also instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to issue instructions for requesting a refund of the difference between the amount of cash deposits paid as a result of the application of the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> rates and the amount due as a result of the amended preliminary determination rates. <HD SOURCE="HD1">U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) Notification</HD> In accordance with section 733(f) of the Act, Commerce will notify the ITC of our amended preliminary determination. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Notification to Interested Parties</HD> This amended preliminary determination is issued and published in accordance with sections 733(d) and 777(i) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.224(e). <SIG> <DATED>Dated: December 9, 2024.</DATED> <NAME>Abdelali Elouaradia,</NAME> Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance. </SIG> <HD SOURCE="HED">Appendix—Scope of the Investigation</HD> The merchandise subject to this investigation are fully or partially uncured epoxy resins, also known as epoxide resins, polyepoxides, oxirane resins, ethoxyline resins, diglycidyl ether of bisphenol, (chloromethyl) oxirane, or aromatic diglycidyl, which are polymers or prepolymers containing epoxy groups ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> three-membered ring structures comprised of two carbon atoms and one oxygen atom). Epoxy resins range in physical form from low viscosity liquids to solids. All epoxy resins are covered by the scope of this investigation irrespective of physical form, viscosity, grade, purity, molecular weight, or molecular structure, and packaging. Epoxy resins may contain modifiers or additives, such as hardeners, curatives, colorants, pigments, diluents, solvents, thickeners, fillers, plasticizers, softeners, flame retardants, toughening agents, catalysts, Bisphenol F, and ultraviolet light inhibitors, so long as the modifier or additive has not chemically reacted so as to cure the epoxy resin or convert it into a different product no longer containing epoxy groups. Such epoxy resins with modifiers or additives are included in the scope where the epoxy resin component comprises no less than 30 percent of the total weight of the product. The scope also includes blends of epoxy resins with different types of epoxy resins, with or without the inclusion of modifiers and additives, so ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 13k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━