The U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, has corrected and changed dumping duties on ball bearings and parts from France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK.
Comments solicited on the initial duties, and filed by involved manufacturers, are what prompted Commerce to review its decisions and recalculate margins -- illustrating the importance of manufacturers getting involved in the review process.
Commerce reviewed 27 manufacturers/exporters. The period of review is May 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007.
A hearing on Japan-specific issues was held July 1; for Germany-specific issues on July 10; France-specific issues July 11; and general issues July 15.
Products covered are balls; all types of unmounted ball bearings; ball bearings with integral shafts; all housed and mounted ball bearings; and ball bearing components. The size and/or precision grade of a bearing is not considered, nor is the intended application. All finished parts are included. Unfinished components are included if they have been heat treated or if heat treatment is not required in order for the part to be considered finished.
Overwhelmed by responses, Commerce cited the administrative burden in exercising its authority to, "limit the number of respondents selected for the reviews."
Chosen were:
France :
• SKF France S.A.
• SKF Aerospace France S.A.S. (SKF France)
Germany :
• Gebruder Reinfurt GmbH & Co. KG (GRW)
• SKF GmbH (SKF Germany)
Italy :
• SKF RIV-SKF Officine di Villas Perosa SpA
• SKF Industrie SpA, RFT SpA, OMVP SpA
• (collectively SKF Italy)
Japan :
• JTEKT Corp. (Koyo)
• NTN Corp.
United Kingdom :
• The Barden Corp. UK Ltd.
• Schaeffler UK Ltd. (formerly Barden and/or FAG UK)
• (collectively Barden/Schaeffler UK)
For the companies which responded but were not selected for individual review, Commerce either calculated a simple average of the two selected or assigned the margin from the previous administrative review. For Japanese bearing manufacturers, that would be 10%, and for UK bearing manufacturers that would be 0.72%.
Massive penalty rates were applied to Christian Feddersen GmbH, Lentz & Schmahl GmbH, and Societe Nexans because they did not respond to Commerce's request for information. Commerce determined these companies had the ability to respond but failed to cooperate to the best of their ability. For their failure to cooperate, Commerce applied the doctrine of "adverse inference" and slapped the three companies with the maximum allowable tariff rates. In essence, adverse inference assumes that a company will refuse to participate when it believes a properly calculated tariff will be even higher than the penalty tariff, which is capped.
Commerce also found some fault with SKF Germany for failing to provide cost of production information for a few pass-through sales made into the U.S..
Final results of the review, and weighted-average dumping margins on ball bearings and parts for May 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007:
Country Company Margin %
France Christian Fedderson GmbH & Co. KG 66.42
France Lentz & Schmahl GmbH 66.42
France Societe Nexans 66.42
France SKF France 11.09
Germany Christian Fedderson GmbH & Co. KG 70.41
Germany Lentz & Schmahl GmbH 70.41
Germany Societe Nexans 70.41
Germany SKF Germany 4.15
Germany GRW 0.12
Italy Christian Fedderson GmbH & Co. KG 69.99
Italy Lentz & Schmahl GmbH 69.99
Italy Societe Nexans 69.99
Italy SKF Italy 7.06
Italy Somecat 7.06
Japan NTN 11.96
Japan Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd. 10.00
Japan Canon Inc. 10.00
Japan Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. 10.00
Japan Nippon Pillow Block Co. Ltd. 10.00
Japan Sapporo Precision Inc. 10.00
Japan Toyota Motor / Toyota Industries 10.00
Japan Yamazaki Mazak Trading 10.00
Japan JTEKT / Koyo 8.03
UK Christian Feddersen GmbH 58.20
UK Lentz & Schmahl GmbH 58.20
UK Societe Nexans 58.20
UK Rolls Royce plc 0.72
UK Barden / Schaeffler UK 0.28
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