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.

The entire decision memo is here:
http://ia.ita.doc.gov/frn/index.html
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

Federal Register Reference: September 11, 2008
73 FR 177 pages 52823-52826