Ferrosilicon From the Republic of Kazakhstan: Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[C-834-813]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Ferrosilicon From the Republic of Kazakhstan: Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination</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) determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of ferrosilicon from the Republic of Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan). The period of investigation (POI) is January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable March 28, 2025. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Peter Shaw or Jose Rivera, AD/CVD Operations, Office OVII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-0697 or (202) 482-0842, respectively. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> On September 10, 2024, Commerce published the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> and invited interested parties to comment on it. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> For a complete description of the events that followed the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination, see</E> the Issues and Decision Memorandum. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> The Issues and 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">http://access.trade.gov.</E> In addition, a complete version of the Issues and Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.</E> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Ferrosilicon from the Republic of Kazakhstan: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Duty Determination,</E> 89 FR 73369 (September 10, 2024), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum (PDM). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Issues and Decision Memorandum for the Final Affirmative Determination in the Countervailing Duty Investigation of Ferrosilicon from the Republic of Kazakhstan,” dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Issues and Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigation</HD> The product covered by this investigation is ferrosilicon from Kazakhstan. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> Appendix I. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope Comments</HD> No interested party commented on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination.</E> Therefore, no changes were made to the scope of the investigation. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Verification</HD> Commerce conducted verification of the information relied upon in making its final determination in this investigation, in accordance with section 782(i) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Specifically, we conducted on-site verifications between September 9 and September 20, 2024, of the subsidy information reported by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan (GOK), YDD Corporation LLP (YDD), and TNC Kazchrome JSC (Kazchrome). <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> On October 24, 2024, Commerce conducted verification of the subsidy information reported by TELF AG. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> We used standard verification procedures, including an examination of relevant accounting records and original source documents provided by the respondents. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memoranda, “Verification of the Questionnaire Response of the Government of Kazakhstan,” dated November 19, 2024; “Verification of Questionnaire Responses of YDD Corporation LLP,” dated November 19, 2024; and “Verification of Questionnaire Responses of TNC Kazchrome JSC Corporation LLP.,” dated November 19, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Verification of Questionnaire Responses of TELF AG,” dated November 19, 2024. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Analysis of Subsidy Programs and Comments Received</HD> The subsidy programs under investigation and the issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs by parties are discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum. For a list of topics discussed, and the issues raised by parties to which we responded in the Issues and Decision Memorandum, <E T="03">see</E> Appendix II. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce conducted this investigation in accordance with section 701 of the Tariff Act of 1920, as amended (the Act). For each of the subsidy programs found to be countervailable, Commerce determines that there is a subsidy, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> a financial contribution by an “authority” that gives rise to a benefit to the recipient, and that the subsidy is specific. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> For a full description of the methodology underlying our final determination, <E T="03">see</E> the Issues and Decision Memorandum. <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> sections 771(5)(B) and (D) of the Act regarding financial contribution; <E T="03">see also</E> section 771(5)(E) of the Act regarding benefit; and section 771(5A) of the Act regarding specificity. </FTNT> In making this final determination, Commerce relied, in part, on facts otherwise available, including adverse facts available (AFA), pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act. For a full discussion of our application of AFA, <E T="03">see</E> the section “Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Adverse Inferences” in the accompanying Issues and Decision Memorandum. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Issues and Decision Memorandum at Section IV. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Changes Since the Preliminary Determination</HD> Based on our review and analysis of the information received during verification and comments received from parties, for this final determination, we made certain changes to the countervailable subsidy rate calculations for YDD, Kazchrome, and for all other producers/exporters. For a discussion of these changes, <E T="03">see</E> the Issues and Decision Memorandum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">All-Others Rate</HD> Pursuant to section 705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act, Commerce will determine an all-others rate equal to the weighted average countervailable subsidy rates established for those exporters and/or producers individually investigated, excluding any zero and <E T="03">de minimis</E> countervailable subsidy rates and any rates based entirely under section 776 of the Act. In this investigation, Commerce calculated an individual estimated subsidy rate for YDD, the only individually-examined exporter/producer in this investigation for which Commerce is calculating an estimated countervailable subsidy rate. Because the only individually calculated rate that is not zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or based entirely on facts otherwise available, is the estimated countervailable subsidy rate calculated for YDD that is the rate assigned to all other producers and exporters, pursuant to section 705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Final Determination</HD> Commerce determines that the following estimated countervailable subsidy rates exist for the period of January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023: <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  This rate applies to YDD Corporation LLP and its cross-owned companies: ASIA FerroAlloys LLP; and KazSilicon Metallurgical Combine LLP. <SU>8</SU>  This rate applies to TELF AG and TNC Kazchrome JSC and its cross-owned companies: Eurasian Energy Corporation JSC; and Shubarkol Komir JSC. As described above, Commerce has calculated a rate based on adverse inferences to TNC Kazchrome JSC as the unaffiliated producer. This rate is to be applied to subject merchandise produced and/or exported by TELF AG and/or TNC Kazchrome JSC. <SU>9</SU>  This rate applies to TELF AG and TNC Kazchrome JSC and its cross-owned companies: Eurasian Energy Corporation JSC; and Shubarkol Komir JSC. As described above, Commerce has calculated a rate based on adverse inferences to TNC Kazchrome JSC as unaffiliated producer. This rate is to be applied to subject merchandise produced and/or exported by TELF AG and/or TNC Kazchrome JSC. </FTNT> <GPOTABLE COLS="2" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s25,17"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Company</CHED> <CHED H="1"> Subsidy rate (percent <E T="03">ad valorem</E> <ENT>16.76</ENT> <ENT>* 265.38</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01"> TNC Kazchrome JSC  <ENT>* 265.38</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">All Others</ENT> <ENT>16.76</ENT> </ROW> <TNOTE>* Rate based on facts available with adverse inferences.</TNOTE> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Disclosure</HD> Commerce intends to disclose its calculations and analysis performed to interested parties in this final determination within five days of its public announcement, or if there is no public announcement, within five days of the date of this notice in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> , in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation</HD> As a result of our <E T="03">Preliminary Determination,</E> and pursuant to sections 703(d)(1)(B) and (d)(2) of the Act, Commerce instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits and suspend liquidation of entries of subject merchandise as described in the scope of the investigation section entered, or withdrawn from wa ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 17k characters. 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