The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated a new shipper review for the antidumping (AD) duty order on brake rotors from China with respect to the following companies (each of which is a producer and exporter of subject merchandise from China) and review period:

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has made a final determination of sales at less than fair value and an affirmative final determination of critical circumstances for certain crepe paper products from China.

In its 5th week available, Take-Two Interactive’s PS2 game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was again the top- rented videogame in the U.S., according to Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Nov. 28. Rentrak said the game earned an additional $1.25 million in the week, for a total of $5.77 million to date. Microsoft’s Xbox game Halo 2 was again #2, in its 3rd week, earning an additional $730,441, for $2.3 million to date. Electronic Arts had 2 SKUs in the top 10, but it wasn’t clear at our deadline if they were the PS2 and Xbox versions of the first Need For Speed: Underground or the recently released Need For Speed: Underground 2. Activision had the most SKUs in the top 10, with 3: Call of Duty: Finest Hour at #4 (up 8 in its 2nd week, $329,294 and $463,020), the Xbox version at #9 (up 15, $252,506 and $339,005) and Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 for PS2 at #10 (down 5, 8th week, $246,227 and $2.2 million). Rounding out the top 10 were 3 games on PS2: Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater at #5 (up 28, 4th week, $278,717 and $353,448), THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw at #7 (down 3, 4th week, $264,283 and $991,645) and Atari’s Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 at #8 in its first week ($259,565).

In its 2nd week available, New Line Home Entertainment’s Elf was once again the #1-rented DVD in the U.S., according to Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Nov. 28. Rentrak said the movie earned an additional $11.11 million on DVD, for a total of $21.69 million to date. In its first week available, Warner’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was surprisingly only the #3-rented DVD in the week, trailing Steven Spielberg’s comedy The Terminal from DreamWorks at #2, also in its first week. Rentrak said The Terminal earned $8.98 million on DVD vs. $7.91 million for the latest Harry Potter release.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that effective February 16, 2005, it will provide the additional capability for an ABI filer to request a reroute of the periodic statement payment authorization (application PN) using the current application QO.

The Tampa suburb of Hillsborough County, Fla., said it may allow Verizon to resume work next week on a fiber network upgrade project that was halted Nov. 16 because the contractors were breaking too many underground water and sewer lines. Verizon and the county public works department have been working since then on measures to better locate and protect underground lines. Verizon contractors since Aug. were involved in nearly 200 incidents of underground facility damage, more than one per day. The halt affected projects that required new excavations. Work involving preexisting conduits and completed excavations was allowed to continue. The remedies may involve having Verizon and county supervisors present when contractors excavate, and preliminary hand- digging in work areas to precisely pinpoint the location of underground facilities. The work in the Tampa area is part of a statewide Verizon fiber network upgrading project.

In its first week available, New Line Home Entertainment’s Elf was the top-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Nov. 21 showed. Rentrak said the title earned $10.58 million in rentals for the week. Last week’s #1 DVD -- Paramount’s The Stepford Wives remake -- dropped to #3, earning an additional $5.58 million, for $14.03 million to date. The week’s only other new release was Universal’s The Chronicles of Riddick at #2 ($7.59 million).

Eidos said its board decided its shareholders’ interests “would be best served by exploring the sale of the company.” The U.K. publisher had announced earlier this year that it was weighing all of its options as part of a strategic review. The company said it had “prepared a short list of the most likely potential partners” and “then held preliminary discussions on a confidential basis with short listed candidates as well as with certain other interested parties who approached us directly.” After the initial review, it said, “more detailed discussions were progressed with a smaller number of potential acquirers and due diligence is now continuing with certain of these parties.” Eidos said it was the company’s “intention to bring this process to a satisfactory conclusion as soon as possible” but “there can be no assurance that an offer for the company will be forthcoming.” Names of interested companies weren’t provided.

Take-Two Interactive’s PS2 game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was again the top-rented videogame in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Nov. 21 showed. Rentrak said the game earned an additional $1.14 million in its 4th week, for $4.52 million in rentals to date. Microsoft’s Xbox game sequel Halo 2 was again #2 in its 2nd week, earning $644,416, for $1.57 million to date. But Electronic Arts (EA) again had more SKUs in the top 10 than any other publisher, with 4: Need for Speed Underground for PS2 at #3 ($279,232 in the week, $9.9 million to date), the Xbox version at #6 ($195,797 and $3.57 million), Madden NFL 2005 for PS2 at #7 (down 2, 15th week, $187,380 and $4.43 million) and Need for Speed Underground 2 for PS2 at #9 in its first week ($164,941). Rounding out the top 10 were one PS2 game each from THQ (WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw at #4, down one, 3rd week, $257,811 and $727,362), Activision (Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 at #5, down one, 7th week, $199,368 and $1.95 million), Sony Computer Entertainment (Killzone at #8, up 2, 3rd week, $170,905 and $319,967) and Midway (Mortal Kombat: Deception at #10, down 4, 7th week, $147,379 and $1.59 million).