NOTICES
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 3-91]
Foreign-Trade Zone 20--Suffolk,
VA; Application for Subzone; ABB Power
Generation, Inc., Electric Power Generator Assembly Facility, Chesterfield
County, VA (Richmond Port of Entry Area)
Wednesday, January 30, 1991
An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the
Board) by the Virginia Port Authority, grantee of FTZ 20, requesting
special-purpose subzone status for the large turbine electric power
generator facility of ABB Power Generation, Inc. (ABB) (subsidiary of ABB
Asea Brown Boveri Group, Switzerland), located in the Richmond, Virginia,
area. 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
January 14, 1991.
The ABB plant (29 acres, 160 employees) is located at 1200 Willis Road,
some three miles south of Richmond's city limits in Chesterfield County,
Virginia. The facility, which was established in 1989, is currently being
used for repair, maintenance, and testing of turbine electric power
generators produced in Europe. The company's plans call for assembly of the
generators at the Richmond facility in the near future. The finished
equipment will be produced for both domestic and export markets. Foreign
materials will account for some 70 percent of the value of the finished
products at the outset and include turbine rotor blades, journal and thrust
bearings, combustion chamber systems, compressor housings and diffusers,
burners, blow off valves, generator materials, control parts, and emission
monitoring components.
Zone procedures would exempt ABB from Customs duty payments on the foreign
components used in the production of items for export. On its domestic
sales, the company would be able to choose the duty rate that applies to
the finished generators (3.0). The duty rates on foreign materials range
from 2.5 to 8.0 percent. The application indicates that the savings from
zone procedures will help improve the firm'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 for Inspection and Control, U.S. Customs Service,
Southeast Region, 909 SE. First Avenue, Miami, Florida 33131-2595; and,
Colonel Richard Johns, Division Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District
Norfolk, 803 Front Street, Norfolk, Virginia 23510-1096.
Comments concerning the proposed foreign-trade subzone are invited form
interested parties. They should be addressed to the Board's Executive
Secretary at the address below and postmarked on or before March 21, 1991.
A copy of the application and accompanying exhibits will be available for
public inspection at each of the following locations:
U.S. Department of Commerce, District Office,
8010 Federal Building,
400 N. 8th Street,
Richmond, Virginia 23240
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, room 4213,
14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.
Dated: January 22, 1991.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 91-2197 Filed 1-29-91; 8:45 am]