I Read your Fuzzy Fix (TR, March 2008) piece, and how it hits home with me and my particular situation.
I own and operate a small, five-employee tire business in eastern Kentucky. The business caters solely to the underground coal mining industry in the region. Over the last 30 years I have seen all the majors fall out of the 10- to 20-inch diameter tire market with the exception of Specialty Tires of America.
My major supplier of mining tires for the last seven years has been Alpha Tire Systems with China-produced products. I have a major problem with this anti-dumping situation as some of the product types and designs that I am currently getting from China has never been produced in America. For the last 20 years, I pleaded with every U.S manufacturer to produce these type of products only to be rejected.
So I ask Mr. Taylor and his followers, how are you going to help me when you show no interest in producing the type of tires that my customers have become accustomed to for the last eight to 10 years?
Brent Wagner
Pikeville Mining Tire Sales Inc.
Pikeville, KY