Retail Display Shelves Not Subject to AD/CVD on Chinese Boltless Steel Shelving Units

Headphone or speaker retail display shelves imported by Fasteners for Retail aren't covered by an antidumping and countervailing duty orders on prepackaged boltless steel shelving units from China, the Commerce Department said in a March 29 scope ruling. Among other things, the display shelves aren't shelving units -- they are only decks, or parts of shelves, it said.

The ruling considered custom-ordered hanging retail display shelves made of welded steel components. They lack vertical and horizontal supports and are intended to hang on wall brackets or gondolas, the department said.

The scope orders, meanwhile, cover all boltless steel shelving, including “rivet shelving, welded frame shelving, slot and tab shelving, and punched rivet (quasi-rivet shelving) as well as by other trade names.” However, the orders grant exclusions for wall-mounted shelving and made-to-order shelving systems.

Commerce said that the language of the scope of the orders was enough on its own to reach a ruling. Fasteners for Retail's display shelves are not shelving units, but rather decks -- parts of shelving units that will slot into existing supports. The displays are also neither prepackaged nor boltless, it said.

However, the department said that Fasterners for Retail's display shelves didn't fit the “made-to-order” exclusion because the importer hadn't described how it ordered its shelves or whether they were “produced pursuant to a complete system designed by its customer.”