OSB Used in Door Jambs Not a 'Composite,' Still Subject to Wood Moulding Duties, Commerce Says
Oriented strand board used in door jambs imported by Composite Technology International (CTI) does not qualify as a composite material for the purposes of an exemption from antidumping and countervailing duties on wood mouldings and millwork from China (A-570-117/C-570-118), so the door jambs are subject to AD/CVD, the Commerce Department said in a recent scope ruling.
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The scope of the orders covers “wood and composite materials (where the composite materials make up less than 50 percent of the total merchandise).” While door jambs are covered by the scope, CTI’s jambs use OSB as the core, running the entire length of the product. CTI argued that the polymeric methylene diphenyldiisocyanate (PMDI) resin used to bind the wood strands together in the OSB renders the OSB a composite material that makes up over 50% of the product.
Though the scope of the wood mouldings and millwork duties doesn’t define what is a composite material, a supplement to the original petition for AD/CVD defines composite material as, “a thermoplastic material with or without a foaming agent, or a combination of a thermoplastic material and a non-plastic material.”
While PMDI can be used in the production process for thermoplastic materials, the resin itself is not a thermoplastic material and does not exempt CTI’s door jambs from the scope, Commerce said. “The record indicates that PMDI is an ingredient used to produce thermoplastic material. Accordingly, we conclude that the OSB material in CTI’s jambs consisting of wood strands and PMDI does not constitute a ‘composite material’ identified in the” scope of the orders, the agency said.
While other definitions for composite material exist, including from the Window and Door Manufacturers Association, that would classify the OSB used by CTI as a composite, the petition’s definition “was accepted in the petition/initiation stage of the” wood mouldings and millwork proceedings, Commerce said. “We find that the petitioner’s definition is more definitive for making our scope determination and also incorporates the WDMA definition such that they are not mutually exclusive.”