DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[DOCKET 20-96]
Foreign-Trade Zone 82--Mobile, AL; Application for Subzone
Status, Zeneca Inc. (Agricultural Chemicals); Mobile County, AL
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 agricultural chemical
manufacturing plant of Zeneca Inc. (Zeneca), in Mobile County, Alabama.
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 11, 1996.
Zeneca Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zeneca Group PLC
(U.K.), a bioscience company comprising three global businesses--
pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and seeds, and specialty products.
Zeneca Group was created as part of the 1993 worldwide reorganization
of Imperial Chemical Industries PLC (U.K.) along industry lines.
Zeneca's Alabama plant (75 acres; 205 tons/day) is located at mile
marker 21 on Highway 43, near Bucks (Mobile County), Alabama, some 20
miles north of Mobile. The facility (250 employees) is used to produce
and/or distribute a wide range of agricultural chemical products,
including herbicides, pesticides, insecticides and organic intermediate
chemicals. Herbicides include DEVRINOL, EPTAM,
ORDRAM, PREFAR and BETASAN,
RONEET, SUTAN, TILLAM, VERNAM,
ICIA 0574 and ICIA 2957. Insecticides include AMBUSH,
PRELUDE, CYMBUSH, DEMON,
DYFONATE, IMIDAN, and PROLATE. Chemical
intermediates include phosphorous trichloride and thiophenol. The
application also requests approval for the production of FLEX
(herbicide), for which a plant expansion is currently underway. The
active ingredients for a number of these products are or would be
sourced abroad. For those products currently produced in the U.S.,
foreign-sourced materials account for some 10 percent of finished
product value. Approximately 25 percent of the plant's production is
exported.
Zone procedures would exempt Zeneca from Customs duty payments on
foreign materials used in production for export. On domestic sales, the
company would be able to choose the duty rates that apply to the
finished products instead of the duty-rates that would otherwise apply
to the foreign-sourced materials. The HTSUS category and duty rates for
the final products and associated inputs are as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Product/Input HTSUS No. Duty rate
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FLEX............... 2935.00.1300 Duty-free.
R118118.................... 2916.31.5000 $0.03/kg + 16.8%.
Acifluorifen acid.......... 2934.90.1500 12.8%.
Potassium carbonate........ 2836.40.1000 1.9%.
AMBUSH/ 2916.70.0000 3.7%.
PRELUDE/.
Pba........................ 2909.49.1500 18.6%.
CYMBUSH/ 2916.20.0000 3.7%.
DEMON/.
Pbald...................... 2912.49.2500 11.3%.
DEVRINOL/.......... 3823.90.5050 5.0%.
Cpa........................ 2926.90.4700 18.6%.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the outset, zone procedures would be mainly used in the
production of FLEX plus-minus. The application indicates that the
savings from zone procedures will help improve the Mobile County
plant's international competitiveness.
In accordance with the Board's regulations, a member of the FTZ
Staff has been designated examiner to
investigate the application and report to the Board.
Public comment is invited from interested parties. Submissions
(original and 3 copies) shall be addressed to the Board's Executive
Secretary at the address below. The closing period for their receipt is
May 20, 1996. Rebuttal comments in response to material submitted
during the foregoing period may be submitted during the subsequent 15-
day period (to June 4, 1996).
A copy of the application and accompanying exhibits will be
available for public inspection at each of the following locations:
Customs Service Port Director's Office, Suite 3004, 150 N. Royal
Street, Mobile, Alabama 36602
Office of the Executive Secretary, Foreign-Trade Zones Board, U.S.
Department of Commerce, Room 3716, 14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC 20230
Dated: March 13, 1996.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 96-6858 Filed 3-20-96; 8:45 am]