DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 24-90]
55 FR 26720
June 29, 1990
Foreign-Trade Zone 66 -- Wilmington, NC; Application for Subzone Deere-
Hitachi Construction Machinery, Kernersville
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, grantee of FTZ 66,
requesting special-purpose subzone status at the hydraulic excavator
manufacturing plant of Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery Corporation
(DHCM) (joint venture between Deere and Company and Hitachi Construction
Machinery Company, Ltd.) located in Kernersville, North Carolina, adjacent
to the Winston-Salem 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 June 18, 1990.
The new DHCM plant is located at West Mountain Street and Perry Road,
Kernersville. Established in 1988, the facility (61 acres, 150 employees)
began production of hydraulic excavators in mid-1989. Some 70 percent of
the components are currently sourced abroad, including chassis, boom
cylinders, bucket cylinders, arm cylinders, swing bearings, front idlers,
track assemblies, track rollers, springs, propel motor and center joints.
Some 25 percent of the plant's production is exported.
Zone procedures would exempt DHCM from Customs duty payments on foreign
items used in its exports. On its domestic sales, the company would be able
to choose the finished excavator duty rate (2%). Duty rates on the foreign
sourced components range from 2.5 to 11.0 percent. The application
indicates that zone procedures will help improve DHCM'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; Howard Cooperman,
Regional Director, Inspection and Control, U.S. Customs Service, South
Central Region, 909 SE. First Avenue, Miami, FL 33131; and, Lt. Colonel
Thomas C. Suermann, District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District
Wilmington, P.O. Box 1890, Wilmington, NC 28402.
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 August 16, 1990.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:
Port Director's Office,
U.S. Customs Service, suite 432,
251 N. Main Street,
Winston-Salem, NC 27101.
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, room 2835,
14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.
Dated: June 22, 1990.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretry.
[FR Doc. 90-15078 Filed 6-28-90; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M