Commerce Continues to Find Flanges Under AD Order on Cast Iron Pipe Fittings

The Commerce Department continued to find in Dec. 21 remand results submitted to the Court of International trade that certain flanges are subject to the antidumping duty order on cast iron pipe fittings from China. Holding that the flanges from Crane Resistoflex have the physical characteristics described in the scope's first paragraph, the agency again defended its position that Crane's flanges are within the scope of the order. In line with CIT's instructions, though, Commerce also dropped its arguments defending its scope decision using the AD petition, ITC report and past scope determinations (MCC Holdings dba Crane Resistoflex v. U.S., CIT #18-00248).

Crane initially sought a scope ruling on nine models of its Ductile Iron Lap Joint Flanges, with each model being a single disc-shaped piece made of ductile iron with a large, unthreaded center hole. Following an initial remand from Judge Timothy Stanceu, Commerce relied on brochures from the antidumping duty petitioner, Anvil International, along with the petition itself to find that the AD order covers the flanges in question. Stanceu was not convinced, though, since neither the petition nor the scope language of the AD order touch on flanges.

When making its decision in the remand results, Commerce also used information from the International Trade Commission's report in the underlying antidumping investigation and prior scope rulings. The agency said that although the ITC considered all flanged ductile cast iron fittings to be excluded from the scope, it didn't exclude ductile iron flanges from the scope. Stanceu found this to be "misleading and erroneous," since the ITC didn't identify flanges as within the scope. On the prior scope ruling question, Stanceu said two of the rulings actually support the flange's exclusion from the AD order. The judge then remanded this decision again for Commerce to reconsider.

While still finding Crane's flanges to be in the scope of the order, the agency now dropped many of its old defenses and relied solely on the flanges' physical characteristics. The scope language says products covered by the order are "finished and unfinished nonmalleable cast iron pipe fittings with an inside diameter ranging from 1/4 inch to 6 inches, whether threaded or unthreaded, regardless of industry or proprietary specifications." Commerce said Crane's flanges have the same characteristics.

"For each of the five flanges subject to this remand proceeding, the inside diameters are between ¼ inch and 6 inches," the remand results said. "In addition, Crane’s ductile iron flanges are unthreaded. Accordingly, since the first paragraph of the Order covers pipe fittings with an inside diameter ranging from ¼ inch to six inches, whether threaded or unthreaded, and Crane’s threaded flanges are within this diameter range, Commerce determined that Crane’s flanges had the same physical characteristics as those subject to the first paragraph of the scope."

Crane disagreed, arguing that "meeting dimensional criteria" isn't enough to find that its flanges are in-scope. "For these final results of redetermination, we continue to find that Crane’s flanges are covered by the plain language of the scope, despite Crane’s argument of the insufficiency of finding scope coverage based solely on dimensional criteria," Commerce responded.