Domestic Silicon Metal Producers Vie for Highest Possible AD Rate on Silicon Metal Using AFA

The Commerce Department should have used the highest margin for the sole mandatory respondent in an antidumping case since the agency decided to rely on adverse facts available in the investigation, domestic silicon metal producers Globe Specialty Metals and Mississippi Silicon said in a June 7 complaint in the Court of International Trade. The two producers also challenged Commerce's decision to disregard that rate based on a financial statement from a firm "whose financial results were dominated by operations unrelated to the production of silicon metal" (Globe Specialty Metals, Inc. and Mississippi Silicon LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00231).

In June 2020, Globe Specialty Metals and Mississippi Silicon petitioned for an antidumping investigation into silicon metal from Bosnia, Iceland and Malaysia. In the underlying AD investigation, Bosnian producer R-S Silicon D.O.O. was selected as the sole mandatory respondent. The company failed to respond to Commerce's questionnaires, leading to a 21.41% AFA antidumping duty rate, which Commerce said was based on the highest rate on the petition. The petitioners took issue with this rate, however, since they originally identified a margin of 39% in their petition. Commerce had required the change to the lower rate in the petition to include financial data from a different company. That company's operations, though, were unrelated to the production of silicon metal, the plaintiffs alleged.