O.T.
U.S. assesses 10.44% duty on Hyundai for DRAM dumping
By Jack Robertson
Semiconductor Business News
(12/21/99, 01:15:15 PM EDT)
WASHINGTON --The Department of Commerce has assessed a 10.44% DRAM dumping duty on Hyundai MicroElectronics Inc. based on what the government said was below-cost memory chip sales in a 12-month period, ended April 30, 1998.
The penalty also applies to all DRAMs imported into the U.S. from wafer fabs formerly owned by LG Semicon Co. Ltd., which became part of Hyundai MicroElectronics in chip merger this year. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. had been dropped from the DRAM dumping case in 1995.
The U.S. attorney for Hyundai said the South Korean chip maker is considering an appeal of the Commerce Department's decision. The company can take its argument to the Court of International Trade.
Hyundai DRAMs made at the firm's plant in Eugene, Ore., are not affected by the Commerce Department decision, which only involves memory chips imported into this country. Hyundai will immediately make cash deposits on the extra 10.44% duties on all future imported DRAMs.
Those cash deposits, however, could be refunded if the Commerce Department finds Hyundai had not dumped DRAMs in a 12-month period, ended April 30, 1999--a review that's now on-going.
Separately, the Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) are conducting a sunset review to end the six-year old dumping case against Hyundai. Two years ago, the Commerce Department rejected appeals by Hyundai and LG Semicon to close out the dumping case. However, under new World Trade Organization dumping rules, the U.S. agreed to launch sunset reviews on a vast array of old dumping cases, including the Korean DRAM case brought by Micron technology Inc. in 1993.
Last year, the Commerce Department assessed Hyundai 3.95% penalty duties on imported DRAMs and LG Semicon 9.28% dumping tariff for the 12-month period ended April 30, 1997. The cash deposits on these duties so far won't be refunded since dumping was found during the following year. The Koreans, however, have appealed the dumping duties covering the 1996-97 period to the Court of International Trade, where the case is still pending. |
