US Department of Commerce is conducting an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain welded stainless steel pipes from the Republic of Korea for the period of review December 1st 2006 through November 30th 2007. The review covers one respondent, SeAH Steel Corporation.

The DoC preliminarily determines that SeAH made sales to the United States at less than normal value. If these preliminary results are adopted in the final results of this administrative review, we will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to assess antidumping duties on entries of SeAH's merchandise during the POR. The preliminary results are listed below in the section titled "Preliminary Results of Review."

On December 28th 2008, DoC received a request for review of SeAH from Bristol Metals LLC. On January 28th 2008, it published, in the Federal Register, the notice of initiation of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on WSSP from Korea for SeAH.

On February 29th 2008, it issued sections A through E of the questionnaire to SeAH. SeAH timely submitted its section A response on April 4th 2008, and its sections B through D responses on April 22nd 2008. On August 19th 2008, the department, in accordance with section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), and 19 CFR 351.213(h)(2), extended the deadline for the preliminary results of this antidumping duty administrative review by 107 days from September 1st 2008 until no later than December 17th 2008.

The merchandise subject to the antidumping duty order is welded austenitic stainless steel pipe that meets the standards and specifications set forth by the American Society for Testing and Materials for the welded form of chromium nickel pipe designated ASTM A-312. WSSP is produced by forming stainless steel flat-rolled products into a tubular configuration and welding along the seam. WSSP is a commodity product generally used as a conduit to transmit liquids or gases. Major applications for steel pipe include, but are not limited to, digester lines, blow lines, pharmaceutical lines, petrochemical stock lines, brewery process and transport lines, general food processing lines, automotive paint lines, and paper process machines. Imports of WSSP are currently classifiable under the following Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheadings: 7306.40.5005, 7306.40.5015, 7306.40.5040, 7306.40.5065, and 7306.40.5085. Although these subheadings include both pipes and tubes, the scope of the antidumping duty order is limited to welded austenitic stainless steel pipes.

In the US market, SeAH reported as date of sale the earlier of shipment or invoice date. According to SeAH, its US subsidiary, Pusan Pipe America, prepares the commercial invoice after SeAH advises PPA that the merchandise is ready for shipment from SeAH to the customer. We preliminarily determine that shipment date may precede invoice date based upon the way in which SeAH described the sales process.