Notice2025-16552

Slag Pots From the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value

Primary source

Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.

Published
August 28, 2025

Issuing agencies

Commerce DepartmentInternational Trade Administration

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that slag pots from the People's Republic of China (China) are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV). The period of investigation is April 1, 2024, through September 30, 2024.

Full Text

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 165 (Thursday, August 28, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 165 (Thursday, August 28, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41990-41992]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-16552]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-196]


Slag Pots From the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that 
slag pots from the People's Republic of China (China) are being, or are 
likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV). 
The period of investigation is April 1, 2024, through September 30, 
2024.

DATES: Applicable August 28, 2025.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: George McMahon, AD/CVD Operations, 
Office VI, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-1167.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On June 17, 2025, Commerce published its Preliminary Determination 
in the Federal Register.\1\ We invited interested parties to comment on 
our Preliminary Determination; however, no parties submitted comments. 
Because no interested parties submitted comments, we have adopted our 
Preliminary Determination as the final determination. Accordingly, no 
decision memorandum accompanies this Federal Register notice.
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    \1\ See Slag Pots from the People's Republic of China: 
Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair 
Value, 90 FR 25584 (June 17, 2025) (Preliminary Determination), and 
accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum (PDM).
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Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by this investigation are slag pots from 
China. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, 
see the appendix to this notice.

Scope Comments

    In the Preliminary Scope Memorandum, we set aside a period of time 
for parties to raise issues regarding product coverage (i.e., scope) in 
scope-specific case or other written comments on scope issues.\2\ We 
received no comments from interested parties on the scope of the 
investigation as it appeared in the Preliminary Scope Memorandum. 
Therefore, we made no changes to the scope of the investigation.\3\
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    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum,'' 
dated March 27, 2025 (Preliminary Scope Memorandum), at 3.
    \3\ Id. at Appendix.
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Verification

    Because no companies in this investigation demonstrated eligibility 
for a separate rate, Commerce determined that all companies are part of 
the China-wide entity; therefore, no verification was conducted.

China-Wide Entity and Use of Adverse Facts Available

    Consistent with the Preliminary Determination,\4\ Commerce 
continues to find, pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Tariff 
Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), that the use of facts otherwise 
available, with adverse inferences, is warranted in determining the 
dumping rate for the China-wide entity. Thus, in this final 
determination, as adverse facts available (AFA), we continue to assign 
a rate of 294.43 percent, which is the highest margin alleged in the 
Petition,\5\ to the China-wide entity.\6\
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    \4\ See Preliminary Determination, 90 FR at 25584; see also 
Preliminary Determination PDM at 6-10.
    \5\ See Slag Pots from the People's Republic of China: 
Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation, 90 FR 8276, 8279 
(January 28, 2025) (Initiation Notice); see also Checklist, 
``Antidumping Duty Investigation Initiation Checklist: Slag Pots 
from the People's Republic of China,'' dated January 21, 2025 
(Initiation Checklist) at 7.
    \6\ The China-wide entity includes: (1) Chaeng Great Wall 
Casting Co., Ltd.; (2) Chaugzhou Jinyuan Machinery Equipment Ltd. 
Co.; (3) China Minmetals Corporation; (4) Dawang Metals Co. Ltd.; 
(5) Dehua Protech Innovation Co., Ltd.; (6) Liaoning Mineral and 
Metallurgy Group Co. Ltd.; (7) MCC Baosteel Technology Services Co., 
Ltd.; (8) Shantou Huaxing Metallurgical Equipment Co. Ltd.; (9) 
Shaoguan Germany China Metal Group, Ltd.; (10) Shenyang Minmetal 
Import & Export Co., Ltd.; and (11) UMECC Beijing Equipment Co., 
Ltd. See Preliminary Determination, 90 FR at 25584.

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[[Page 41991]]

Combination Rates

    In the Initiation Notice,\7\ Commerce stated that it would 
calculate producer/exporter combination rates for the respondents that 
are eligible for a separate rate in this investigation. Policy Bulletin 
05.1 describes this practice.\8\ Because no respondent qualified for a 
separate rate, we did not calculate producer/exporter combination rates 
for this final determination.
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    \7\ See Initiation Notice, 90 FR at 8279-80.
    \8\ See Enforcement and Compliance's Policy Bulletin No. 05.1, 
regarding, ``Separate-Rates Practice and Application of Combination 
Rates in Antidumping Investigations involving Non-Market Economy 
Countries,'' (April 5, 2005) (Policy Bulletin 05.1), available at 
<a href="https://access.trade.gov/Resources/policy/bull05-1.pdf">https://access.trade.gov/Resources/policy/bull05-1.pdf</a>.
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Final Determination

    Commerce determines that the following estimated weighted-average 
dumping margin exists:

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                                                       Cash deposit rate
                                   Weighted- average     (adjusted for
        Producer/exporter           dumping margin      export subsidy
                                       (percent)       offset) (percent)
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China-Wide Entity...............           * 294.43              278.81
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* Rate is based on facts available with adverse inferences.

Disclosure

    Normally, Commerce discloses to interested parties the calculations 
performed in connection with a final determination 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). However, because Commerce applied AFA to the China-
wide entity in this investigation, in accordance with section 776 of 
the Act, and the applied AFA rate is based solely on the petition, 
there are no calculations to disclose.

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, Commerce will 
instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue to 
suspend liquidation of all appropriate entries of subject merchandise, 
as described in the appendix to this notice, which were entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after June 17, 2025, 
which is the date of publication of the affirmative Preliminary 
Determination in the Federal Register, at the cash deposit rate 
indicated above.
    Pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.210(d), upon the publication of this notice, Commerce will instruct 
CBP to require a cash deposit for estimated antidumping duties for 
appropriate entries. Commerce will instruct CBP to require the 
following cash deposits of estimated antidumping duties for all 
appropriate entries: (1) for all Chinese exporters of subject 
merchandise, the cash deposit will be equal to the estimated dumping 
margin established for the China-wide entity; and (2) for all third-
country exporters of merchandise under consideration, the cash deposit 
rate is also the cash deposit rate applicable to the China-wide entity. 
These suspension of liquidation instructions will remain in effect 
until further notice.
    To determine the cash deposit rate, Commerce normally adjusts the 
estimated weighted-average dumping margin by the amount of domestic 
subsidy pass-through and export subsidies determined in a companion 
countervailing duty (CVD) proceeding when CVD provisional measures are 
in effect. Accordingly, where Commerce has made a preliminary 
affirmative determination for domestic subsidy pass-through or export 
subsidies, Commerce has offset the calculated estimated weighted-
average dumping margin by the appropriate export subsidy rate. Any such 
adjusted cash deposit rate may be found in the ``Final Determination'' 
section above. However, the suspension of liquidation of provisional 
measures in the companion CVD investigation has been discontinued.\9\ 
Therefore, we are not instructing CBP to collect cash deposits based on 
the adjusted estimated weighted-average dumping margin for export 
subsidies at this time. If the U.S. International Trade Commission 
(ITC) makes a final affirmative determination of injury due to both 
dumping and subsidies, then the cash deposit rate will be revised 
effective on the date of publication of the ITC's final affirmative 
determination in the Federal Register to be the weighted-average 
dumping margin adjusted for export subsidies.
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    \9\ See Slag Pots from the People's Republic of China: 
Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, 90 FR 
14625 (April 3, 2025); see also section 703(d) of the Act, which 
states that the provisional measures may not be in effect for more 
than four months, which in the companion CVD case is 120 days after 
the publication of the preliminary determination, or July 31, 2025 
(i.e., last day provisional measures are in effect).
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U.S. International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we intend to notify 
the ITC of our final affirmative determination of sales at LTFV. 
Because the final determination in this proceeding is affirmative, in 
accordance with section 735(b)(2) of the Act, the ITC will make its 
final determination as to whether the domestic industry in the United 
States is materially injured, or threatened with material injury, by 
reason of imports of slag pots from China no later than 45 days after 
this final determination. In addition, we are making available to the 
ITC all nonprivileged and nonproprietary information related to this 
investigation. We will allow the ITC access to all privileged and 
business proprietary information in our files, provided the ITC 
confirms that it will not disclose such information, either publicly or 
under an administrative protective order (APO), without the written 
consent of the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.
    If the ITC determines that material injury or threat of material 
injury does not exist, the proceeding will be terminated and all cash 
deposits will be refunded or canceled, and suspension of liquidation 
will be lifted. If the ITC determines that such injury does exist, 
Commerce will issue an AD duty order directing CBP to assess, upon 
further instruction by Commerce, AD duties on

[[Page 41992]]

all imports of the subject merchandise that are entered, or withdrawn 
from warehouse, for consumption on or after the effective date of the 
suspension of liquidation, as discussed above in the ``Continuation of 
Suspension of Liquidation'' section.

Administrative Protective Order

    In the event that the ITC issues a final negative injury 
determination, this notice will serve as the only reminder to parties 
subject to an APO of their responsibility concerning the disposition of 
proprietary information disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.305(a)(3). Timely written notification of the return or destruction 
of APO materials or conversion to judicial protective order is hereby 
requested. Failure to comply with the regulations and terms of an APO 
is a violation subject to sanction.

Notification to Interested Parties

    We are issuing and publishing this final determination in 
accordance with sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR 
351.210(c).

    Dated: August 25, 2025.
Abdelali Elouaradia,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix

Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by the investigation is slag pots with a 
nominal capacity of 65 cubic feet to 1200 cubic feet regardless of 
shape, form, or finish.
    Slag pots are load bearing devices typically formed as a curved 
shell or bowl-shaped container. Slag pots are metallurgical goods 
typically produced either using a casting process or a fabrication 
process (e.g., welding) and may include a ceramic refractory 
coating, heat treatment or various finishes in order to handle high 
temperature slag. Slag pots may contain integral features or 
attachments including (1) legs (or a stand) and (2) pivotal mounting 
hooks or brackets. Legs (or a stand) are a fixed or detachable 
support structure which allows the slag pot to be securely 
positioned upright on a surface when not being lifted or transported 
and may also keep the slag pot off the ground and allow for air 
cooling. The pivotal mounting hooks and brackets are specialized 
attachment points (such as lifting lugs or trunnions) that allow the 
slag pot to be securely lifted and transported by a crane or lifting 
device, or that enable the slag pot to swing or rotate while 
remaining attached to the lifting mechanism. The merchandise covered 
by this investigation includes all aforementioned attachments of a 
fully assembled slag pot, regardless of whether shipped assembled or 
unassembled.
    Slag pots are included within the scope whether finished or 
unfinished, whether imported individually or with other subject or 
non-subject merchandise, or whether assembled with attachments or 
unassembled. Finishing includes, but is not limited to, arc washing, 
welding, grinding, shot blasting, heat treatment, machining, and 
assembly of various parts.
    The country of origin for slag pots whether fully assembled, 
unfinished or finished, is the country where the slag pot was cast 
or forged. Subject merchandise includes slag pots that have been 
further processed or further assembled in a third country. Further 
processing and further assembly include, but is not limited to, arc 
washing, welding, grinding, shot blasting, heat treatment, painting, 
coating, priming, machining, and assembly of attachments.
    Slag pots subject to the investigation are specified within the 
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) under 
subheadings 7309.00.0090 and 8454.20.0080. The slag pot attachments 
covered by the scope of this investigation may enter under HTSUS 
subheadings 7316.00.0000, 7325.10.0080, 7325.99.1000, 7325.99.5000, 
and 7326.19.0080. The HTSUS subheading is provided for convenience 
and customs purposes only. The written description of the scope of 
the investigation is dispositive.

[FR Doc. 2025-16552 Filed 8-27-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P


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Indexed from Federal Register on August 28, 2025.

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