On September 25, 2020, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a Federal Register notice reopening the public comment period for its Section 232 national security investigation of imports of vanadium. BIS initially opened the investigation into vanadium imports on June 2, 2020 (see Update of June 3, 2020) as a result of a petition filed by U.S. producers AMG Vanadium LLC (Cambridge, Ohio) and U.S. Vanadium LLC (Hot Springs, Arkansas). However, in requesting public comments at that time, BIS failed to make available the petition and any relevant supporting documentation. While not clearly stating that this was the reason for reopening the comment period, BIS has now made the petition available “in the interests of transparency” and reopened the docket for public comment.
A public version of the petition, and its accompanying 43 exhibits, is available at www.regulations.gov under docket no. BIS-2020-0002. Any additional comments on the pending investigation must be filed no later than October 9, 2020, on this same docket.