[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 73 (Thursday, April 16, 2026)] [Notices] [Pages 20410-20412] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2026-07465] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration [A-762-001, A-553-001] Silicon Metal From Angola and the Lao People's Democratic Republic: Antidumping Duty Orders AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. SUMMARY: Based on affirmative final determinations by the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Commerce is issuing antidumping duty (AD) orders on silicon metal from Angola and the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos). DATES: Applicable April 16, 2026. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Doyle (Angola) or Caroline Carroll (Laos), AD/CVD Operations, Office IX, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-5882 or (202) 482-4948, respectively. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background On February 23, 2026, Commerce published its affirmative final determinations in the less than fair value (LTFV) investigations of silicon metal from Angola and Laos, in accordance with sections 735(d) and 777(i) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act).\1\ On April 6, 2026, pursuant to section 735(d) of the Act, the ITC notified Commerce of its final affirmative determinations that an industry in the United States is materially injured by reason of dumped imports of silicon metal from Angola and Laos, within the meaning of section 735(b)(1)(A)(i) of the Act.\2\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ See Silicon Metal from Angola: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Classification of Angola as a Non-Market Economy, 91 FR 8419 (February 23, 2026); see also Silicon Metal from the Lao People's Democratic Republic: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Classification of the Lao People's Democratic Republic as a Non- Market Economy, 91 FR 8407 (February 23, 2026). \2\ See ITC's Letter, ``Notification of ITC Final Determination,'' dated April 6, 2026. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scope of the Orders The product covered by these orders is silicon metal from Angola and Laos. For a complete description of the scope of the orders, see the appendix to this notice. AD Orders As noted above, on April 6, 2026, in accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, the ITC notified Commerce of its final determination that an industry in the United States is materially injured within the meaning of section 735(b)(1)(A)(i) of the Act by reason of LTFV imports of silicon metal from Angola and Laos.\3\ Therefore, in accordance with sections 735(c)(2) and 736 of the Act, Commerce is issuing these AD orders. Because the ITC determined that imports of silicon metal from Angola and Laos are materially injuring a U.S. industry, unliquidated entries of such merchandise from Angola and Laos, entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, are subject to the assessment of antidumping duties. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \3\ Id. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Therefore, in accordance with section 736(a)(1) of the Act, Commerce intends to direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess, upon further instruction by Commerce, antidumping duties equal to the amount by which the normal value (NV) of the merchandise exceeds the export price (EP) (or constructed export price (CEP)) of the merchandise on all relevant entries of silicon metal from Angola and Laos. Antidumping duties will be assessed on unliquidated entries of silicon metal from Angola and Laos entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after September 30, 2025, the date of publication of the LFTV Preliminary Determinations,\4\ but will not include entries occurring after the expiration of the provisional measures period and before publication of the ITC's final injury determination, as further described below. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \4\ See Silicon Metal from Angola: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 90 FR 46810 (September 30, 2025), corrected by Silicon Metal from Angola: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value; Correction, 90 FR 52913 (November 24, 2025); see also Silicon Metal from the Lao People's Democratic Republic: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 90 FR 46807 (September 30, 2025) (collectively, LFTV Prelim Determinations). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suspension of Liquidation and Cash Deposits Except as noted in the ``Provisional Measures'' section of this notice, Commerce intends to instruct CBP to reinstitute the suspension of liquidation of silicon metal from Angola and Laos, effective on the date of publication of the ITC's final affirmative injury determination in the Federal Register, and to assess, upon further instruction by Commerce, pursuant to section 736(a)(1) of the Act, antidumping duties on each entry of subject merchandise equal to the amount by which the NV of the merchandise exceeds the EP (or CEP) of the merchandise. These instructions suspending liquidation will remain in effect until further notice. Commerce also intends to instruct CBP to require cash deposits equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping margins indicated in the table below. Accordingly, effective on the date of publication in the Federal Register of the notice of the ITC's final [[Page 20411]] affirmative injury determination, CBP will require, at the same time as importers would normally deposit estimated customs duties on subject merchandise, a cash deposit equal to the rates listed in the table below. The relevant rate for the Angola-wide and Laos-wide entities, as applicable, apply to all producers and exporters not specifically listed. These cash deposit requirements will remain in effect until further notice. To determine the cash deposit rate where there is a companion countervailing duty (CVD) proceeding, Commerce normally adjusts the estimated weighted-average dumping margin by the amount of export subsidies countervailed in the CVD proceeding, when CVD provisional measures are in effect. Accordingly, where Commerce has made a final affirmative determination for countervailable export subsidies, Commerce offsets the estimated weighted-average dumping margin by the appropriate CVD rate. However, because Commerce based its final CVD determination for Laos on adverse facts available, we do not find that there are any export subsidies in the companion CVD investigation to use as an offset for the Laos AD cash deposit rates.\5\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \5\ See Silicon Metal from the Lao People's Democratic Republic: Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, 91 FR 8425, 8426 (February 23, 2026). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Estimated Weighted-Average Dumping Margins The estimated weighted-average dumping margins are as follows: Angola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Weighted- average Producer/exporter dumping margin (percent) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PC Silicon Co. Limited...................................... * 68.45 Wanhongda International Limited............................. * 68.45 All Others.................................................. 68.45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * This rate is based on facts available with adverse inferences. Laos ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Weighted- average Producer/exporter dumping margin (percent) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lao Silicon Co., Ltd........................................ * 94.44 All Others.................................................. 94.44 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * This rate is based on facts available with adverse inferences. Provisional Measures Section 733(d) of the Act states that suspension of liquidation pursuant to an affirmative preliminary determination may not remain in effect for more than four months, except where exporters representing a significant proportion of exports of the subject merchandise request that Commerce extend the four-month period to no more than six months. In the underlying investigations, Commerce published the LFTV Preliminary Determinations on September 30, 2025. Thus, the four-month period beginning on the date of the publication of the LFTV Preliminary Determinations ended on January 27, 2026. As a result, entries of silicon metal from Angola and Laos made on or after January 28, 2026, are not subject to the assessment of antidumping duties. Therefore, in accordance with section 736(a)(1) of the Act and our practice, Commerce instructed CBP to terminate the suspension of liquidation and to liquidate, without regard to antidumping duties, unliquidated entries of silicon metal from Angola and Laos entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after January 28, 2026, the day on which the provisional measures expired. Suspension of liquidation and the collection of cash deposits will resume on the date of publication of the ITC's final determination in the Federal Register. Establishment of the Annual Inquiry Service Lists On September 20, 2021, Commerce published the Final Rule in the Federal Register.\6\ On September 27, 2021, Commerce also published the Procedural Guidance in the Federal Register.\7\ The Final Rule and Procedural Guidance provide that Commerce will maintain an annual inquiry service list for each order or suspended investigation, and any interested party submitting a scope ruling application or request for circumvention inquiry shall serve a copy of the application or request on the persons on the annual inquiry service list for that order, as well as any companion order covering the same merchandise from the same country of origin. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \6\ See Regulations to Improve Administration and Enforcement of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Laws, 86 FR 52300 (September 20, 2021) (Final Rule). \7\ See Scope Ruling Application; Annual Inquiry Service List; and Informational Sessions, 86 FR 53205 (September 27, 2021) (Procedural Guidance). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In accordance with the Procedural Guidance, for orders published in the Federal Register after November 4, 2021, Commerce will create an annual inquiry service list segment in Commerce's online e-filing and document management system, Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Electronic Service System (ACCESS), available at https://access.trade.gov, within five business days of publication of the notice of the order. Each annual inquiry service list will be saved in ACCESS, under each case number, and under a specific segment type called ``AISL-Annual Inquiry Service List.'' \8\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \8\ This segment will be combined with the ACCESS Segment Specific Information (SSI) field which will display the month in which the notice of the order or suspended investigation was published in the Federal Register, also known as the anniversary month. For example, for an order under case number A-000-000 that was published in the Federal Register in January, the relevant segment and SSI combination will appear in ACCESS as ``AISL-January Anniversary.'' Note that there will be only one annual inquiry service list segment per case number, and the anniversary month will be pre-populated in ACCESS. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interested parties who wish to be added to the annual inquiry service list for an order must submit an entry of appearance to the annual inquiry service list segment for the order in ACCESS within 30 days after the date of publication of the order. For ease of administration, Commerce requests that law firms with more than one attorney representing interested parties in an order designate a lead attorney to be included on the annual inquiry service list. Commerce will finalize the annual inquiry service list within five business days thereafter. As mentioned in the Procedural Guidance,\9\ the new annual inquiry service list will be in place until the following year, when the Opportunity Notice for the anniversary month of the order is published. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \9\ See Procedural Guidance, 86 FR at 53206. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commerce may update an annual inquiry service list at any time as needed based on interested parties' amendments to their entries of appearance to remove or otherwise modify their list of members and representatives, or to update contact information. Any changes or announcements pertaining to these procedures will be posted to the ACCESS website at https://access.trade.gov. Special Instructions for the Petitioner and Foreign Governments In the Final Rule, Commerce stated that, ``after an initial request and placement on the annual inquiry service list, both petitioners and foreign governments will automatically be placed on the annual inquiry service list in the years that follow.'' \10\ [[Page 20412]] Accordingly, as stated above, the petitioners \11\ and foreign governments should submit their initial entries of appearance after publication of this notice in order to appear in the first annual inquiry service lists for these orders. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.225(n)(3), the petitioners and foreign governments will not need to resubmit their entries of appearance each year to continue to be included on the annual inquiry service list. However, the petitioners and foreign governments are responsible for making amendments to their entries of appearance during the annual update to the annual inquiry service list in accordance with the procedures described above. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \10\ See Final Rule, 86 FR at 52335. \11\ The petitioners in these proceedings are Ferroglobe USA, Inc. and Mississippi Silicon LLC (collectively, the petitioners). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notification to Interested Parties This notice constitutes the AD orders with respect to silicon metal from Angola and Laos, pursuant to section 736(a) of the Act. Interested parties can find a list of AD and CVD orders currently in effect at https://www.trade.gov/datavisualization/adcvd-proceedings. These AD orders are published in accordance with section 736(a) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.211(b). Dated: April 13, 2026. Christopher Abbott, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations, performing the non-exclusive functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance. Appendix Scope of the Orders The scope of these orders covers all forms and sizes of silicon metal, including silicon metal powder. Silicon metal contains at least 85.00 percent but less than 99.99 percent silicon, and less than 4.00 percent iron, by actual weight. Semiconductor grade silicon (merchandise containing at least 99.99 percent silicon by actual weight and classifiable under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheading 2804.61.0000) is excluded from the scope of these orders. Silicon metal is currently classifiable under subheadings 2804.69.1000 and 2804.69.5000 of the HTSUS. While the HTSUS numbers are provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the scope remains dispositive. [FR Doc. 2026-07465 Filed 4-15-26; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P
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Silicon Metal From Angola and the Lao People's Democratic Republic: Antidumping Duty Orders
Based on affirmative final determinations by the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Commerce is issuing antidumping duty (...
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91 FR 20410
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“Silicon Metal From Angola and the Lao People's Democratic Republic: Antidumping Duty Orders,” thefederalregister.org (April 16, 2026), https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2026-07465/silicon-metal-from-angola-and-the-lao-people-s-democratic-republic-antidumping-duty-orders.