Steel Pods Aren't Covered by AD/CVD on Boltless Steel Shelves
Custom-made steel pods imported by Ledvance aren’t covered by antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on boltless steel shelving units, the Commerce Department said in a Feb. 28 scope ruling. The pods were previously found not to be covered by duties on steel racks (see 2501310067).
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Levdance’s steel pods “can be characterized as a horizontal and rectangular surface, which is supported off the ground with four legs” and serve as storage or as the base for shelving units, Commerce said. Ledvance uses the products in its own warehouses to store products on wood pallets, it said.
The orders, meanwhile, cover “boltless steel shelving units prepackaged for sale, with or without decks.”
The language of the orders was dispositive to the department’s ruling, it said. It explained the pods “are not shelving units, nor are they prepackaged for sale with upright and horizontal supports or assembled in a boltless fashion.”
Commerce considered two models of the pods: Pod C and Pod A. Pod C, it said, “is closed at the top” and doesn’t contain “additional supports for assembly into a shelving system” -- it's only intended “to hold a wooden pallet of product.” It's also welded together, not prepackaged for sale.
Pod A, meanwhile, “might resemble a shelving system” because it includes separately packaged additional supports, but these components don’t “meet the ‘prepackaged for sale requirement of the scope,’” it said. They also fell into the “made-to-order” exclusion from the orders, as Levdance ordered them custom-made for their own use in warehouses. Levdance, it noted, exclusively sells light fixtures, and there is no evidence it has ever purchased its shelves with the intent to resell them in retail.