Steel Concrete Reinforcing Bar From Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-721-001, A-487-002, A-729-805, A-552-853]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Steel Concrete Reinforcing Bar From Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable June 24, 2025. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Anjali Mehindiratta at (202) 482-9127 (Algeria), Hermes Pinilla at (202) 482-3477 (Bulgaria), Anne Entz at (202) 482-3845 (Egypt), and Charles Doss at (202) 482-4474 (the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam)), AD/CVD Operations, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Petitions</HD> On June 4, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) received antidumping duty (AD) petitions concerning imports of steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) from Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Vietnam filed in proper form on behalf of the Rebar Trade Action Coalition (the petitioner) and its individual members, domestic producers of rebar. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> The AD Petitions were accompanied by countervailing duty (CVD) petitions concerning imports of rebar from Algeria, Egypt, and Vietnam. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letter, “Petitions for the Imposition of Antidumping and Countervailing Duties,” dated June 4, 2025 (Petitions). The individual members of the Rebar Trade Action Coalition are Byer Steel Corporation, Commercial Metals Company, Gerdau Ameristeel U.S. Inc., Nucor Corporation, Optimus Steel, and Steel Dynamics, Inc. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> Between June 9 and 20, 2025, Commerce requested supplemental information pertaining to certain aspects of the Petitions in supplemental questionnaires. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> Between June 11 and 23, 2025, the petitioner filed timely responses to these requests for additional information. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Commerce's Letters, “Supplemental Questions,” dated June 9, 2025 (First General Issues Questionnaire) and First Country-Specific Supplemental Questionnaires: Algeria Supplemental, Bulgaria Supplemental, Egypt Supplemental, and Vietnam Supplemental, dated June 10, 2025; <E T="03">see also</E> Memorandum, “Teleconference with Counsel to the Petitioner,” dated June 20, 2025 (June 20, 2025, Memorandum); and Country-Specific Memoranda, “Teleconference with Counsel to the Petitioner,” dated June 20, 2025. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letters, “Petitioner's Response to the 1st Supplemental Questionnaire Regarding Common Issues and Injury Volume I of the Petition,” dated June 11, 2025 (First General Issues Supplement); “First Country-Specific AD Supplemental Responses: First Angola AD Supplement,” “First Algeria AD Supplement,” “First Egypt AD Supplement,” and “First Vietnam AD Supplement,” dated June 12, 2025; “Petitioner's Response to the 2nd Supplemental Questionnaire Regarding Common Issues and Injury Volume I of the Petition,” dated June 23, 2025 (Second General Issues Supplement); and “Second Country-Specific AD Supplemental Responses: Second Angola AD Supplement,” “Second Algeria AD Supplement,” “Second Egypt AD Supplement,” and “Second Vietnam AD Supplement,” dated June 23, 2025. </FTNT> In accordance with section 732(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), the petitioner alleges that imports of rebar from Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Vietnam are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV) within the meaning of section 731 of the Act, and that imports of such products are materially injuring, or threatening material injury to, the rebar industry in the United States. Consistent with section 732(b)(1) of the Act, the Petitions were accompanied by information reasonably available to the petitioner supporting its allegations. Commerce finds that the petitioner filed the Petitions on behalf of the domestic industry, because the petitioner and its individual members are interested parties, as defined in sections 771(9)(C) and (F) of the Act. Commerce also finds that the petitioner demonstrated sufficient industry support for the initiation of the requested LTFV investigations. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> section on “Determination of Industry Support for the Petitions,” <E T="03">infra.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Periods of Investigations (POI)</HD> Because the Petitions were filed on June 4, 2025, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.204(b)(1), the period of investigation (POI) for the Algeria, Bulgaria, and Egypt LTFV investigations is April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025. Because Vietnam is a non-market economy (NME) country, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.204(b)(1), the POI for the Vietnam LTFV investigation is October 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigations</HD> The product covered by these investigations is rebar from Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Vietnam. For a full description of the scope of these investigations, <E T="03">see</E> the appendix to this notice. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments on the Scope of the Investigations</HD> On June 20, 2025, Commerce requested information and clarification from the petitioner regarding the proposed scope to ensure that the scope language in the Petitions is an accurate reflection of the products for which the domestic industry is seeking relief. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> On June 23, 2025, the petitioner provided clarifications. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> The description of merchandise covered by these investigations, as described in the appendix to this notice, reflects these clarifications. <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> June 20, 2025, Memorandum. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Second General Issues Supplement at 1-2. </FTNT> As discussed in the <E T="03">Preamble</E> to Commerce's regulations, we are setting aside a period for interested parties to raise issues regarding product coverage ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> scope). <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce will consider all scope comments received from interested parties and, if necessary, will consult with interested parties prior to the issuance of the preliminary determinations. If scope comments include factual information, <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> all such factual information should be limited to public information. Commerce requests that interested parties provide at the beginning of their scope comments a public executive summary for each comment or issue raised in their submission. Commerce further requests that interested parties limit their public executive summary of each comment or issue to no more than 450 words, not including citations. Commerce intends to use the public executive summaries as the basis of the comment summaries included in the analysis of scope comments. To facilitate preparation of its questionnaires, Commerce requests that scope comments be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on July 14, 2025, which is 20 calendar days from the signature date of this notice. Any rebuttal comments, which may include factual information, and should also be limited to public information, must be filed by 5:00 p.m. ET on July 24, 2025, which is 10 calendar days from the initial comment deadline. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, Final Rule,</E> 62 FR 27296, 27323 (June 19, 1997) ( <E T="03">Preamble</E> ); <E T="03">see also</E> 19 CFR 351.312. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.102(b)(21) (defining “factual information”). </FTNT> Commerce requests that any factual information that parties consider relevant to the scope of these investigations be submitted during that period. However, if a party subsequently finds that additional factual information pertaining to the scope of the investigations may be relevant, the party must contact Commerce and request permission to submit the additional information. All scope comments must be filed simultaneously on the records of the concurrent LTFV and CVD investigations. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Filing Requirements</HD> All submissions to Commerce must be filed electronically via Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS), unless an exception applies. <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> An electronically filed document must be received successfully in its entirety by the time and date it is due. <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings: Electronic Filing Procedures; Administrative Protective Order Procedures,</E> 76 FR 39263 (July 6, 2011); <E T="03">see also Enforcement and Compliance: Change of Electronic Filing System Name,</E> 79 FR 69046 (November 20, 2014) for details of Commerce's electronic filing requirements, effective August 5, 2011. Information on using ACCESS can be found at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/help.aspx</E> and a handbook can be found at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/help/Handbook_on_Electronic_Filing_Procedures.pdf.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments on Product Characteristics</HD> Commerce is providing interested parties an opportunity to comment on the appropriate physical characteristics of rebar to be reported in response to Commerce's AD questionnaires. This information will be used to identify the key physical characteristics ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 46k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━