DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 19-88]
53 FR 12051
April 12, 1988
Foreign-Trade Zone 29, Louisville, KY; Application for Subzone for Hitachi
Auto Components Plant, Harrodsburg, KY
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the Louisville and Jefferson County Riverport Authority,
grantee of FTZ 29, requesting special-purpose subzone status for the
automobile components manufacturing plant of Hitachi Automotive Products
(USA), Inc. (subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., Japan), located in Harrodsburg,
Kentucky. 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 March 30, 1988.
The Hitachi plant (50 acres) is located at 955 Warwick Road, Harrodsburg,
Kentucky. The facility employs 250 persons and is used to produce automobile
components such as alternators, starter motors, engine control modules,
ignition coils, pressure signal transducers, air flow meters, and pollution
control cannisters. Foreign sourced materials for those products range from
40 to 84 percent of the value of the products. They include items such as
integrated circuits, transistors, capacitors, resistors, connectors,
transducers, coils, armatures, yokes, pinions, magnetic assemblies,
plungers, bushings, motors, sensors, activated charcoal, cases, covers and
fasteners. Hitachi has plans to export some of the finished products to
Japan and Canada.
Zone procedures would exempt Hitachi from Customs duty payments on
foreign materials used in its exports. On domestic sales, the company would
be able to choose the same finished product duty rate that applies to the
completed components (3.1-4.9%). The rates on materials and subcomponents
range from 0.0 to 11.0%. If the components are shipped to auto assembly
plants with subzone status the auto duty rate (2.5%) would apply. The
applicant indicates that the savings would help improve the plant'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; John F. Nelson,
District Director, U.S. Customs Service, North Central Region, 6th Floor,
Plaza Nine Bldg., 55 Erieview Plaza, Cleveland, OH 44114; and Colonel Robert
L. Oliver, District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District Louisville, P.O.
Box 59, Louisville, KY 40201.
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 May 27.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:
U.S. Dept. of Commerce District Office,
Gene Snyder Courthouse and Customhouse,
601 W. Broadway, Room 636B,
Louisville, KY 40202
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 1529,
14th & Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.
Dated: April 6, 1988.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 88-7970 Filed 4-11-88; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M