Commerce Finds Modified Engines Within Scope of Vertical Shaft Engine AD/CVD Orders
Modified vertical shaft engines with a vertical take off shaft and a horizontal crankshaft fall within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on vertical shaft engines between 99cc and up to 225cc and parts thereof from China (A-570-124/C-570-125), the Commerce Department said in a Dec. 22 scope ruling. The scope ruling applied to modified vertical shaft engines, "such as the modified R210-S engine manufactured by Chongqing Rato Technology Co."
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The scope of the orders covers "spark-ignited, non-road, vertical shaft engines, whether finished or unfinished, whether assembled or unassembled, whether mounted or unmounted, primarily for walk-behind lawn mowers." Commerce said that after looking at evidence from the scope ruling application, including data from the California Air Resources Board and the EPA's database on small nonroad spark-ignition engines, the information demonstrates that modified vertical shaft engines are "sparkignited, single-cylinder, air-cooled, internal combustion engines between 99cc and 225cc that generate 1.95 kw to 4.75 kw of gross power."
As a result, the only remaining issue for Commerce was to find whether the modified engines should be deemed to have a horizontal or vertical power take off shaft. The modified engines have a horizontal crankshaft attached to a right-angle gearbox which takes power from a horizontal to a vertical orientation via a downward shaft to the blades of the lawn mower.
"[W]e find that the fact that these engines have horizontal crankshafts does not exclude them from the scope of the Orders, because the portion of the engine defined in the scope as having a 'vertical' orientation is not the crankshaft but, rather, the power take off shaft," the agency said.