Specialty Metals--Definition of "Produce" (DFARS Case 2012-D041)

Summary:

DCN 20120724 includes a proposed rule to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to revise the definition of "produce" as it applies to specialty metals. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 directed DoD to review the definition of "produce" to ensure its compliance with the statutory restrictions on specialty metals and to determine if a revision to the current rule was necessary and appropriate.

Supplementary Information:

I.  Background

As required by section 823 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 (Pub. L. 111-383), DoD sought comments in the Federal Register (76 FR 18383) on July 25, 2011, regarding the definition of "produce" as it applies to the production of specialty metals. The final rule under DFARS Case 2008-D003 (74 FR 37626 on July 29, 2009) defined "produce" to mean "the application of forces or processes to a specialty metal to create the desired physical properties through quenching or tempering of steel plate, gas atomization or sputtering of titanium, or final consolidation of non-melt derived titanium powder or titanium alloy powder."

Seventeen sources submitted comments in response to the request for comments in the 2011 Federal Register notice, focusing almost exclusively on whether such processes as quenching and tempering should continue to be considered as production of thin specialty metal steel armor plate. Some of the information provided was proprietary. DoD has reviewed and analyzed the comments received in response to the Federal Register notice. In addition, DoD considered current technologies for production of specialty metals other than titanium and analyzed the impact any change in the definition would have on DoD's ability to meet its mission requirements. As a result, DoD is proposing to amend the definition of "produce" to eliminate the phrase "quenching and tempering" of armor steel plate, and to expand the application of the other listed technologies, currently restricted just to titanium and titanium alloys, to any specialty metal that could be formed by such technologies.

II. Discussion and Analysis of Comments

A. General

Two of seventeen respondents supported the current definition, and the other fifteen respondents opposed the current definition of "produce," because it includes processes in addition to melting regarding the production of steel armor plate, but they acknowledged that other processes are appropriate to the definition of "produce" for other specialty metals.

A discussion and analysis of the public comments is here.

Dates:

Effective Date:  The Effective Date for this proposed rule is 24 July 2012.

Comment Date: Comments are due by 24 September 2012 to be considered in the formation of the final rule.

Click here to read the entire Federal Register notice for this rule.