CAFC Says Commerce Reasonably Adjusted Wind Tower Exporter's Steel Plate Costs
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed April 21 the Commerce Department’s decision to adjust wind tower exporter Dongkuk S&C Co.’s steel plate input costs based on fluctuations in the input’s price over time -- price fluctuations unrelated to the plate’s physical characteristics. The department isn’t limited to adjusting only the costs of the physical characteristics it has used to define CONNUMs, it said.
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It said the Court of International Trade initially remanded the determination because it didn’t find Commerce had adequately explained how the fluctuating costs were unrelated to the inputs’ physical characteristics. On remand, the department showed that Dongkuk “had reported different per-unit steel plate input costs for reported control numbers (CONNUMs) finished at different times because the price of steel had fluctuated during the period of investigation” by comparing per-unit steel prices in May and September 2018.
No evidence had demonstrated that per-unit steel plate prices had changed based on the size of an individual CONNUM, it said; all the steel plate Dongkuk purchased within the same month was bought at nearly the same per-unit price regardless of the size or characteristics of the CONNUM each unit was destined for.
As a result, the department decided reasonably under 28 U.S.C. 1677b(f)(1)(A) that it would average Dongkuk’s reported steel costs to avoid distortion, CAFC said.
Dongkuk argued that Commerce hadn’t made steel plate one of the 11 physical characteristics it used to define Dongkuk’s CONNUMs, so the department shouldn't have been able to find that Dongkuk’s own normal books and records weren’t reasonably reflective of the “differences in the physical characteristics of the completed wind towers.”
But Commerce isn’t limited to adjusting only the costs of the physical characteristics it has used to define CONNUMs, CAFC said. Otherwise, Commerce would be impeded in trying to calculate accurate antidumping margins, it said.
It also disagreed that Commerce had been required to compare the costs of finished wind towers of the same CONNUMs, saying the department had supported its determination with substantial evidence based on per unit costs.
And it found that the department reasonably selected a surrogate for Dongkuk’s third-country selling price. Dongkuk argued Commerce should have selected the unconsolidated financial records of Korean large diameter steel pipe exporter SeAH Steel, not of SeAH Steel’s parent company, SeAH Steel Holdings Corp. SeAH Steel was spun off from SeAH Steel Holdings Corp. four months before the end of the period, and Dongkuk argued that the exporter’s records for those four months were the best reflection of its own prices.
But, based on the factors Commerce must consider when selecting surrogates, “SeAH Steel Corporation’s data failed factor (3), i.e. contemporaneity, and SSHC’s data had some nondisqualifying shortcomings under factors (1) and (2),” CAFC said. It said Commerce reasonably selected SSHC on the basis that it was the only potential surrogate that offered 12 months of data.
(Dongkuk S&C Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1419, dated 04/21/25; Judges: Alan Lourie, Jimmie Reyna and Todd Hughes; Attorneys: MacKensie Sugama of Trade Pacific for plaintiff-appellant Dongkuk S&C Co.; Sosun Bae for defendant-appellee U.S. government; Maureen Thorson of Wiley Rein for defendant-appellee Wind Tower Trade Coalition)