US DOC amends final results of AD review on flat products from S. Korea

In response to requests from petitioners, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) conducted the eleventh administrative review of the antidumping duties on certain corrosion resistant carbon steel flat products imported from South Korea. The review covers five manufacturers/exporters of the subject merchandise: Union Steel Manufacturing (Union), Pohang Iron & Steel Company (POSCO) and Pohang Coated Steel Co (POCOS) (collectively the POSCO Group), Hyundai HYSCO (HYSCO), Dongbu Steel Corporation (Dongbu) and Dongshin Special Steel Co (Dongshin). The period of review was August 1, 2003, through July 31, 2004. In the final results dated February 13, 2006, the DOC determined that during the period of review, POSCO, Union and Dongbu sold subject merchandise at less than normal value (NV), HYSCO did not make sales of the subject merchandise at less than NV (i.e it has a “zero” or de minimis dumping margin). Regarding Dongshin, since the producer failed to respond to the DOC's questionnaire, the DOC decided to resort to adverse facts available and assigned to Dongshin the “All Others” rate in effect for this order. What's more, the DOC decided to rescind the request for review of the antidumping order for SeAH Steel Corporation since SeAH did not have exports or sales in the US during the period of review. The final weighted-average dumping margins existing for the period August 1, 2003, through July 31, 2004 were as follows:

Producer/Manufacturer                        Margin

Dongbu........................................2.26%
Union.........................................1.54%      
The POSCO Group...............................2.16%
HYSCO.........................................0.00%
Dongshin.....................................17.70%

However, following the publication of the final results, both domestic parties and respondents submitted comments alleging ministerial errors. After analyzing the comments received, the DOC determined that it had made a ministerial error in the final results calculation for Union in this administrative review. Therefore, the DOC decided to amend the final results of the antidumping administrative review on certain corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products imported from South Korea. Accordingly, Union's weighted-average dumping margin has been increased from 1.54 percent to 1.60 percent. For the remaining respondents, the weighted-average dumping margins remain the same.