The Department of Commerce (DOC) announced its affirmative preliminary determination in the anti-dumping duty (AD) investigation of imports of TBR tires from China yesterday afternoon and has found that truck and bus tires from China are being dumped in the U.S. at less than fair value. To level the playing field as a result of this determination, the DOC will have the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency collect cash deposits based on these preliminary rates:
- Mandatory respondent Prinx Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Co. was issued a preliminary dumping margin of 20.87%;
- Double Coin Holdings, which produces tires for China Manufacturers Alliance (CMA) in the U.S., was “not eligible for a separate rate” and issued the China-wide entity tariff of 22.57%
- Non-selected respondents eligible for a separate rate were issued a 20.87% dumping margin;
- As penalty for failing to respond to Commerce’s requests for information, all other producers/exporters in China that make up the China-wide entity received a 22.57% dumping margin.
The anti-dumping duties are retroactive. According to the DOC, CBP will be instructed to impose retroactively provisional measures on all entries of truck and bus tires, “effective 90 days prior to publication of the preliminary determination in the Federal Register.”
The DOC is scheduled to announce its final determination on or about Jan. 17, 2017. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is scheduled to make its final injury determination in March 2017. If the DOC’s or the ITC’s final determination is negative, no anti-dumping order will be issued; if the final determination finds TBR tires from China materially injure or threaten material injury to the domestic industry, the DOC will issue an anti-dumping order.
Truck and bus tires covered by this investigation may be tube-type, tubeless, radial, or non-radial. In 2015, the number of tires imported from China was an estimated 8,908,000 valued at $1,070.762,000.
