DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 39-87]
52 FR 46110
December 4, 1987
Foreign-Trade Zone 82, Mobile, AL; Application for Subzone, Degussa
Methionine Plant, Mobile County
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the City of Mobile, Alabama, grantee of FTZ 82, requesting
special-purpose subzone status for the methionine manufacturing facility of
Degussa Corporation, a subsidiary of Degussa AG of West Germany, located in
Mobile County, Alabama, adjacent to the Mobile Customs port of entry. The
application was submitted pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign-Trade
Zones Act, as amended (19 U.S.C. 81a-81u), and the regulations of the Board
(15 CFR Part 400). It was formally filed on November 23, 1987.
The plant (193 acres) is located on Highway 24, south of Hamilton Blvd.,
in Mobile County, some 2 miles southeast of Theodore, and 10 miles south of
Mobile. The facility employs 500 persons and is used to produce methionine,
aerosil, cyanuric chloride, hydrocyanic acid, and ammonium sulfate, but zone
procedures are being requested at this time only for the production of
methionine, and amino acid used as an agricultural feed supplement. The
primary ingredient is methylmercaptopropionaldehyde (MMP) which is sourced
abroad.
Zone procedures would exempt Degussa from Customs duty payments on its
reexports. On its domestic sales, the company would be able to pay duties
at the rate available to importers of methionine. The duty rate for
methionine is 4.4 percent whereas the rate for MMP is 6.0 percent. The
applicant indicates that the zone savings would help improve the company's
international competitiveness.
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; David Willette,
District Director, U.S. Customs Service, South Central Region, P.O. Box
2748, Mobile, AL 36652; and Colonel C. Hilton Dunn, Jr., District Engineer,
U.S. Army Engineer District Mobile, P.O. Box 2288, Mobile, AL 36628.
Comments concerning the proposed subzone 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 January 22, 1988.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:
District Director,
U.S. Customs Service,
250 N. Water Street,
Mobile, AL 36652
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 1529,
14th and Pennsylvania NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.
Dated: November 30, 1987
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 87-27886 Filed 12-3-87; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M