DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
54 FR 49321
November 30, 1989
Foreign-Trade Zone 84 -- Harris County, TX; Application for Subzone Zeon
Synthetic Rubber Plant, Harris County
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the Port of Houston Authority, grantee of FTZ 84, rquesting
special-purpose subzone status for a new synthetic rubber manufacturing plant
under construction by Zeon Chemical, Inc. (subsidiary of Nippon Zeon Co.
Ltd., Japan), in Harris County, Texas, adjacent to the Houston 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 17, 1989.
The new plant is being constructed on a 34-acre parcel located on Choate
Road at State Route 146, within the Bayport Industrial Development in
Harris County. The facility will be used to process imported nitrile
butadiene rubber (NBR), by hydrogenation to produce a patented form of
hydrogenated NBR (Zetpol), which would be sold to producers of such
products as automobile hoses, belts, and seals. Zeon will purchase the
NBR from Japan. Zeon plans to export about half of the Zetpol made at the
new Texas plant.
NBR from Japan is presently subject to an antidumping (AD) order
(53 FR 22553, 6/16/88), but is otherwise duty-free. Zone procedures would
exempt Zeon from the AD duties on NBR used in Zetpol that is exported. The
company is not seeking exemption from AD duties on products shipped into the
U.S. market. The application indicates zone savings will encourage the
company to shift production to the United States from Japan.
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; Paul Rimmer,
Deputy Assistant Regional Commissioner, Southwest Region, 5850 San Felipe
Street, Houston, Texas 77057; and, Colonel John A. Tudela, District
Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District Galveston, P.O. Box 1229, Galveston,
Texas 77553.
Comments concerning the proposed subzone are invited in writing from
interested parties. They shall be addressed to the Board's Executive
Secretary at the address below and postmarked on or before January 19, 1990.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
following locations:
U.S. Department of Commerce, District Office,
2625 Federal Courthouse Building,
515 Rusk Street,
Houston, Texas 77002;
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 2835,
14th & Pennsylvania Ave., NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.
Dated: November 20, 1989.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 89-28073 Filed 11-29-89; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M