Certain Carbon and Alloy Steel Cut-to-Length Plate From the Republic of Korea: Preliminary Results and Partial Rescission of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2023

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[C-580-888]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Carbon and Alloy Steel Cut-to-Length Plate From the Republic of Korea: Preliminary Results and Partial Rescission of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2023</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to certain producers and exporters of certain carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate (CTL plate) from the Republic of Korea (Korea) during the period of review (POR) January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. In addition, Commerce is rescinding this review with respect to 54 companies. Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary results of review. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable September 11, 2025. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Rachel Accorsi or Joshua Nixon, AD/CVD Operations, Office VIII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-3149 or (202) 482-8361, respectively. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> On May 25, 2017, Commerce published a countervailing duty (CVD) order on CTL plate from Korea. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On July 5, 2024, Commerce published a notice of initiation of an administrative review of the <E T="03">Order.</E> <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> We initiated an administrative review of 56 producers/exporters of CTL plate from Korea for the POR. On July 26, 2024, Commerce selected POSCO as the sole mandatory respondent in this administrative review. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Carbon and Alloy Steel Cut-to-Length Plate from the Republic of Korea: Countervailing Duty Order,</E> 82 FR 24103 (May 25, 2017) ( <E T="03">Order</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Administrative Reviews,</E> 89 FR 55567 (July 5, 2024) ( <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Respondent Selection,” dated July 26, 2024. </FTNT> On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> On December 9, 2024, Commerce tolled the deadline to issue the preliminary results in this administrative review by an additional 90 days. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> On April 2, 2025, Commerce extended the deadline for the preliminary results of this review until September 5, 2025. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings,” dated July 22, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings,” dated December 9, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Extension of Deadline for Preliminary Results of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review,” dated April 2, 2025. </FTNT> For a complete description of the events that followed the initiation of this review, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> A list of topics discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is included at Appendix I. 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> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Results of the Countervailing Duty Administrative Review of Certain Carbon and Alloy Steel Cut-to-Length Plate from the Republic of Korea; 2023,” dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Order</HD> The merchandise covered by the <E T="03">Order</E> is CTL plate. For a complete description of the scope of the <E T="03">Order, see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Rescission of Administrative Review, in Part</HD> It is Commerce's practice to rescind an administrative review of a CVD order, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3), when there are no reviewable entries of subject merchandise during the POR for which liquidation is suspended. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> Normally, upon completion of an administrative review, the suspended entries are liquidated at the CVD assessment rate calculated for the review period. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Therefore, for an administrative review of a company to be conducted, there must be a reviewable, suspended entry that Commerce can instruct CBP to liquidate at the CVD assessment rate calculated for the POR. <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> On August 23, 2024, we released a memorandum notifying interested parties that, based on our examination of the results of the CBP data query, we intended to rescind the administrative review for certain companies for which the data show no reviewable entries of subject merchandise during the POR, and requested comments. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> No interested parties provided comments. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See, e.g.,</E> <E T="03">Lightweight Thermal Paper from the People's Republic of China: Notice of Rescission of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2015,</E> 82 FR 14349 (March 20, 2017); <E T="03">see also Circular Welded Carbon Quality Steel Pipe from the People's Republic of China: Rescission of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2017,</E> 84 FR 14650 (April 11, 2019). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.212(b)(2). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Notice of Intent to Rescind Review, in Part,” dated August 23, 2024 (Intent to Rescind Memo) at Attachment 1. </FTNT> According to the CBP import data, 54 companies under review did not have reviewable entries of subject merchandise during the POR for which liquidation is suspended. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> In the absence of any evidence of shipments placed on the record, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3), we are rescinding the administrative review of these companies. <FTNT> <SU>12</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Appendix II. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce is conducting this administrative review in accordance with section 751(a)(1)(A) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). For each of the subsidy programs found countervailable, we preliminarily determine that there is a subsidy, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> a financial contribution by an “authority” that confers a benefit to the recipient, and that the subsidy is specific. <SU>13</SU> <FTREF/> For a full description of the methodology underlying our preliminary results, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <FTNT> <SU>13</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> sections 771(5)(B) and (D) of the Act regarding financial contribution; section 771(5)(E) of the Act regarding benefit; and section 771(5A) of the Act regarding specificity. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Preliminary Results of Review</HD> In accordance with 19 CFR 351.221(b)(4)(i), we preliminarily calculated the following net countervailable subsidy rate for the period January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023: <GPOTABLE COLS="2" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s25,12C"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Company</CHED> <CHED H="1"> Subsidy rate (percent <E T="03">ad valorem</E> POSCO Co., Ltd. <SU>14</SU> </ENT> <ENT>4.31</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">  As discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, Commerce preliminarily finds the following companies to be cross-owned with POSCO Co., Ltd.: POSCO Holdings Inc.; POSCO Future M Co., Ltd. ; POSCO Mobility Solution Co., Ltd.; POSCO M-Tech Co., Ltd.; and POSCO Nippon Steel RHF Joint Venture Co., Ltd. The subsidy rate applies to all cross-owned companies. We note that POSCO has an affiliated trading company through which it exported certain subject merchandise during the POR, POSCO International (aka POSCO International Corporation). POSCO International was not selected as a mandatory respondent, but was examined in the context of POSCO. Therefore, there is not an established CVD rate for POSCO International; POSCO International's subsidies are accounted for in POSCO's total subsidy rate. Instead, entries of subject merchandise exported by POSCO International will receive the rate of the producer listed on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) entry form. Thus, the subsidy rate applied to POSCO and POSCO's cross-owned affiliates is also applied to POSCO International for entries of subject merchandise produced by POSCO. </FTNT> Commerce intends to disclose its calculations and analysis performed to interested parties for these preliminary results within five days of any 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">Public Comment</HD> Case briefs or other written comments may be submitted to the As ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 20k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━