On October 29, 2024, IDC Group, Inc., Iowa Spring Manufacturing, Inc., and Service Spring Corp. (Petitioners), domestic producers of overhead door counterbalance torsion springs (overhead door springs), filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking the imposition of antidumping duties (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) on imports of overhead door springs from China and India. Overhead door springs are typically used to raise and lower overhead doors such as garage doors, warehouse doors, and gates.

Under U.S. law, a domestic industry may petition the United States government to initiate an AD investigation into the pricing of an imported product to determine whether it is sold in the United States at less than fair normal value prices. For market economies (such as India), normal value is home market or third-country price, or actual cost plus reasonable profit of the foreign producer/exporter. For deemed non-market economy China, normal value is a constructed cost plus deemed reasonable profit based on surrogate values in a market economy deemed of comparable level of economic development to China.

A domestic industry also may petition for the initiation of an investigation of alleged countervailable subsidies provided by a foreign government to producers and exporters of the subject merchandise. DOC will impose AD and/or CVD duties on subject merchandise if it determines that imports of that product are dumped and/or subsidized, and if the ITC also determines that the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with such injury by reason of imports of the subject merchandise.

The immediate activity will occur at the ITC. In the preliminary stage, the threshold to find injury from the accused imports is low such that the ITC generally finds sufficient indicia of injury to a U.S. industry from the accused imports to continue the AD/CVD investigations. If the ITC votes to continue, then the investigation moves to DOC.

If the ITC and DOC make preliminary affirmative determinations, U.S. importers will be required to post cash deposits in the amount of the AD and/or CVD duties for all entries of the subject merchandise entered on or after the date of DOC’s preliminary determinations being published in the Federal Register. Note that if there is a surge of imports from the subject countries following the filing of the petitions, DOC can find critical circumstances for a particular subject country (or producer) and instruct U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits retroactively to 90 days before the date of publication of the preliminary determination. 

Following further factual investigation, verification, and briefing, DOC can change the preliminary AD/CVD rates in its final determinations. AD/CVD Orders will only issue if both the DOC and ITC make affirmative final determinations. The ITC final injury investigation is more rigorous than its preliminary injury investigation, where historically 30% or so of petitions are rejected at that stage.

Scope

Petitioner requests the following product scope for the investigation:

“The merchandise covered by these investigations is helically-wound, overhead door counterbalance torsion steel springs (“overhead door counterbalance torsion springs”). Overhead door counterbalance torsion springs are helical steel springs with tightly wound coils that store and release mechanical energy by winding and unwinding along the spring’s axis by an angle, using torque to create a lifting force in the counterbalance assembly typically used to raise and lower overhead doors, including garage doors, industrial rolling doors, warehouse doors, trailer doors, and other overhead doors, gates, grates, or similar devices. The merchandise covered by these investigations covers all overhead door counterbalance torsion springs with a coil inside diameter of 15.8 millimeters (“mm”) or more but not exceeding 304.8 mm (measured across the diameter from inner edge to inner edge); a wire diameter of 2.5 mm to 20.4 mm; a length of 127 mm or more; and regardless of the following characteristics:

• wire type (including, but not limited to, oil-tempered wire, hard-drawn wire, music wire, galvanized or other coated wire);
• wire cross-sectional shape (e.g., round, square, or other shapes);
• coating (e.g., uncoated, oil- or water-based coatings, lubricant coatings, zinc, aluminum, zinc-aluminum, paint or plastic coating, etc.);
• winding orientation (left-hand or right-hand wind direction);
• end type (including, but not limited to, looped, double looped, clipped, long length, mini warehouse, Barcol, Crawford, Kinnear, Wagner, rolling steel or barrel ends); and
• whether the overhead door counterbalance torsion springs are fitted with hardware, including but not limited to fasteners, clips, and cones (winding or stationary cones).

For purposes of the diameters referenced above, where the nominal and actual measurements vary, a product is within the scope if application of either the nominal or actual measurement would place it within the scope based on the definitions set forth above.

The steel torsion springs included in the scope of these investigations are produced from steel in which: (1) iron predominates, by weight, over each of the other contained elements; and (2) the carbon content is 2 percent or less, by weight.

Subject merchandise includes cones or other fittings attached to or entered with the subject overhead door counterbalance torsion springs. Subject merchandise also includes all subject overhead door counterbalance torsion springs entered as a part of overhead door kits, overhead door mounting or assembly kits, or as a part of a spring-operated motor assembly or as a part of a spring winder assembly kit for torsion springs. When counterbalance torsion springs are entered as a part of such kits, only the counterbalance spring and cones attached to or entered with the spring are within scope.

Subject merchandise also includes overhead door counterbalance torsion springs that have been further processed in a third country, including but not limited to cutting to length, attachment of hardware, cones or end-fittings, inclusion in garage door kits or garage door mounting or assembly kits, or any other processing that would remove the merchandise from the scope of these orders if performed in the country of manufacture of the in-scope overhead door counterbalance torsion springs.

All products that meet the written physical description are within the scope of these investigations unless specifically excluded. The following products are specifically excluded from the scope of these investigations:

• leaf springs (slender arc-shaped length of spring steel of a rectangular cross-section);
• disc springs (conical springs consisting of a convex disc with the outer edge working against the center of the disc);
• extension springs (close-wound round helical wire springs that store and release energy by resisting the external pulling forces applied to the spring’s ends in the direction of its length);
• compression springs (helical coiled springs with open wound active coils (such open winding is also known as pitch) that are designed to compress under load or force); and
• spiral springs (torsion springs wound as concentric spirals such as a clock spring or mainspring).

The products subject to these investigations are currently classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheadings 7320.20.5020, 7320.20.5045 and 7320.20.5060. They may also be classified under HTSUS subheading 8412.90.9085 if entered as parts of spring-operated motors. They may also be classified in HTSUS subheading 8412.80.1000 (spring-operated motors) if entered as part of a spring counterweight assembly for an overhead door. They may also be classified in HTSUS subheading 7308.90.9590, a basket category that includes metal garage doors entered with mounting accessories or assemblies. Although the HTSUS subheadings are provided for convenience and Customs purposes, the written description of the scope of these investigations is dispositive.”

Foreign Producers and Exporters of Subject Merchandise

A list of foreign producers and exporters of overhead door springs, as identified in the petition, is provided in Attachment 1.

U.S. Importers of Subject Merchandise

A list of U.S. importers of overhead door springs, as identified in the petition, is provided in Attachment 2.

Alleged Margins of Dumping/Subsidization

Petitioners allege the following dumping import duty margins:

China: 685.93 – 787.3%

India: 104.57 – 124.86%

These are only estimates based on data most favorable to Petitioner. DOC generally assigns duties at the highest alleged dumping rate to foreign producers and exporters who fail to cooperate during the investigation as to answering DOC questionnaires to obtain an AD/CVD margin based on their actual situation.

Petitioner does not provide specific subsidy rates in the petition.

Potential Trade Impact

According to Petitioners, imports of the subject merchandise totaled $20.33 million and 11.09 million pounds in 2023. These numbers were calculated by Petitioners using publicly available shipment manifest records and information from domestic producers, and do not represent official U.S. import statistics.

Estimated Schedule of Investigations