Two CIT Complaints Tackle Surrogate Data Picks in Activated Carbon AD Review

A pair of complaints at the Court of International Trade, one filed by Calgon Carbon and the other by Carbon Activated Tianjin, argue that the Commerce Department picked the wrong surrogate data in a recent administrative review of the antidumping duty order on activated carbon from China (Calgon Carbon Corporation v. U.S., CIT #22-00025) (Carbon Activated Tianjin Co. v. U.S., CIT #22-00017).

Calgon took issue with Commerce's Malaysian surrogate data for bituminous coal, one of the main factors of production in making activated carbon. In the preliminary results, Commerce relied on the value of the Malaysian imports of merchandise listed under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 2701.12, which provides for bituminous coal. However, in the final results, Commerce valued the Malaysian imports under subheading 2701.19, which provides for other coal. "In doing so, the Department erroneously relied on a formula and calculation proposed by the respondents to calculate the heat value of the bituminous coal consumed during production," the complaint said.

Calgon, which was joined by Cabot Norit Americas in the brief, also took issue with Commerce's treatment of mandatory respondent Datong Juqiang Activated Carbon's consumption of bituminous coal. Commerce said that there was a difference between the quantity of the bituminous coal actually consumed during the review period and the review period standard bituminous coal consumption. DJAC explained this was because some of the coal consumed was "contained in the normal-ash carbonized material sold" and some of it in the normal-ash carbonized material in the closing inventory. Commerce's acceptance of this explanation conflicts with prior agency practice, the complaint said. "The Department’s acceptance of DJAC’s reporting of consumption of bituminous coal is unreasonable and unsupported by record evidence because it fails to account for the consumption of carbonized material during any segment," Calgon said.

The second complaint, filed by Carbon Activated Tianjin and Carbon Activated Corp., said Commerce illegally based its financial ratios in the surrogate value calculation on data reported by Malaysian producers Century and Bravo. Instead, Romanian producer Romcarbon's data was best, the brief said, because it disaggregated the data and gave more accurate financial ratios. Commerce also violated the law by not using subheading 4402.90.9000 to value coconut shell imports, the plaintiffs said.

"Because Malaysian data under subheading 4402.90, HTS, were demonstrably unreliable and impeached by domestic price data, the Department erred in not using reliable subheading 4402.90, HTS, data from a secondary surrogate country, Turkey," the complaint said. "The Department’s failure to do this left its Final Results concerning this factor of production unsupported by substantial evidence on the record and contrary to law."