DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 23-86]
51 FR 25225
July 11, 1986
Foreign-Trade Zone 65 -- Panama City, FL; Application for Extension Berg
Steel Pipe Corp., Zone Manufacturing Operation
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the Panama City Port Authority, grantee of FTZ 65, Panama
City, Florida, requesting an extension of Berg Steel Pipe Corporation's
(BSPC) authority to use zone procedures for its manufacturing operations
at its steel pipe plant in the Port Authority's foreign-trade zone. The
application was formally filed on June 27, 1986.
In January 1981, the Board authorized the Port Authority to establish a
foreign-trade zone in Panama City within its Port complex (Board Order 171,
46 FR 8072, 1-26-81). The order included authorization for BSPC's new steel
pipe plant for five years, subject to extension. This authority will expire
on March 1, 1987. The Port Authority has requested an indefinite extension.
BSPC is a producer of large diameter steel pipe with outer diameters of
24 to 64 inches, employing over 200 persons. Foreign sourcing of its carbon
steel plate requirements has ranged from about 50 percent at the outset to
some 10 percent in recent years. Exports have declined from 40 percent of
shipments in 1982 to less than 2 percent, due to changed circumstances.
Zone procedures exempt BSPC from duty payments on the foreign steel used
in its exports. On its domestic sales, the company is able to take advantage
of the same duty rate available to importers of finished pipe, which is 1.9
percent compared with the 6.3 percent duty rate on steel plate. BSPC
contends the savings help them compete against imports of finished steel
pipe.
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, DC 20230; Howard Copperman,
Deputy Assistant Regional Commissioner, U.S. Customs Service, Southeast
Region, 99 S.E. 5th St., Miami, FL 33131; and Colonel Carroll H. Dunn,
District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District Mobile, P.O. Box 2288,
Mobile, AL 36628.
Comments concerning the proposed extension are invited in writing from
interested parties. They should be addressed to the Board's Executive
Secretary at the address below and postmarked on or before September 5,
1986.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:
Port Director's Office,
U.S. Customs Service,
James H. Moore Bldg.,
30 W. Government St.,
Panama City, FL 32402
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Rm 1529,
14th & Pennsylvania, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.
Dated: July 8, 1986.
John J. DaPonte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 86-15700 Filed 7-10-86; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M