DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 6-84]
49 FR 9245
March 12, 1984
Foreign-Trade Zone 53, Rogers County, Oklahoma; Application for Subzone at
Steel Tube Plant of Tubular Corporation of America in Muskogee, Oklahoma
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority (Port
Authority), grantee of Foreign-Trade Zone 53 in Tulsa, requesting special-
purpose subzone status for the steel tube manufacturing plant of Tubular
Corporation of America, Inc. (TCA), in Muskogee, Oklahoma, some 40 miles
from the Tulsa Customs port of entry. The application was submitted
pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign-Trade Zones Act, as amended
(19 USC 81a-81u), and the regulations of the Board (15 CFR Part 400). It
was formally filed on March 2, 1984. The applicant is authorized to make
this proposal under Section 1106(g) of Title 82, Oklahoma Statutes. The
question of adjacency is being reviewed by the Customs Service.
On December 7, 1979, the Port Authority was authorized by the Board to
establish a foreign-trade zone project in the Tulsa area (Board Order 151,
44 FR 76382, 12/26/79). The project covers 112 acres within the 2000-port
terminal and industrial park complex of the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in
Rogers County. It is operated as part of the Port Authority's terminal
operations.
The proposed subzone will be located at TCA's facilities, One Port
Place, in the Port of Muskogee Industrial Park, Muskogee. The subzone
request is for 197 acres which includes 42 acres the company is currently
leasing and an adjacent 155 acres on which TCA has a lease option. TCA is
in the business of manufacturing oil country steel tubular goods with outer
diameters of 2 3/8 inches to 10 3/4 inches, which are used as oil well
casing and tubing, and oil and gas drill pipe. After purchasing semi-
finished tubular shells, the company processes them into high quality
tubing by heat-treating, upsetting, threading, and adding a domestically
sourced coupling unit. The products are then tested and certified on the
premises by an independent firm, Muskogee Inspection Company. Company
plans call for an expansion of its product line to include tubular goods
up to 13 3/8 inches in outer diameter, and an expansion of annual plant
capacity from 180,000 to 300,000 tons.
Zone procedures would allow TCA to defer duty until the finished
products are shipped. Duty payments are a significant cost factor because
the rates for both semi-finished and finished tubular goods range from 0.5
to over 12 percent and the goods can remain in inventory up to six months.
The zone-related savings would help the company better compete with
imported, finished tubular goods, which captured half the U.S. market in
1982, and encourage the company to proceed with expansion plans that would
add some 300 employees to the current workforce of 300.
In accordance with the Board's regulations, an examiners committee has
been appointed to investigate the application and report to the Board. The
committee consists of: Dennis Puccinelli (Chairman), Foreign-Trade Zones
Staff, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 20230; Donald Gough,
Deputy Assistant Regional Commissioner, U.S. Customs Service, Southwest
Region, 5850 San Felipe Street, Houston, TX 77057; and Colonel Franklin
T. Tilton, District Engineeer, U.S. Army Engineer District Tulsa, P.O.
Box 61, Tulsa, OK 74121.
Comments concerning the proposed subzone are invited in writing from
interested persons and organizations. They should be addressed to the
Board's Executive Secretary at the address below and postmarked on or
before April 6, 1984.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each
of the following locations:
Port Director's Office,
U.S. Customs Service,
Tulsa International Airport,
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74115
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 1872,
14th and Pennsylvania, NW.,
Washington, D.C. 20230.
Dated: March 7, 1984.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 84-6569 Filed 3-9-84; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M