Wind Tower Exporter’s Conversion Costs Vary Too Much Between Products, Petitioner Claims

A domestic petitioner said in a May 3 complaint that the Commerce Department failed to explain why it hadn’t adjusted the conversion costs of a 2021-2022 antidumping duty review’s mandatory respondent even though it had done so in the past (Wind Tower Trade Coalition v. U.S., CIT # 24-00070).

In its complaint, the Wind Tower Trade Coalition said that the conversion costs of South Korean utility wind tower exporter Dongkuk S&C had varied much more widely from project to project than they should have.

In a prior review on wind towers from Indonesia, Commerce had “acknowledged that the costs specific to each type of tower [were] unrelated to the physical characteristics of the products” and adjusted them accordingly, the petitioner said. But when the trade coalition made and offered to Commerce the same adjustment regarding Dongkuk’s costs, the department refused to take it, it said.

In its final results, Commerce acknowledged the variation in average conversion costs per project, but said that that was because Dongkuk’s wind towers vary in complexity, Wind Tower said.

However, the petitioner said, “it failed to explain why these costs ‘reasonably reflect the costs associated with the production and sale of the merchandise’ because it did not identify any impact these physical characteristics had on reported conversion costs.”

It asked the trade court to remand the results so that Commerce can reach a new conclusion consistent with the court’s opinion.