The officials did not disclose details of Shandong Deruibao's “financial constraints.”
Shandong Deruibao was set up in 2009 in Guangrao county, Dongying, Shandong Province. It registered sales of $992 million in 2013, which put it No. 34 on Tire Business' top 75 tire makers' ranking.
The company, a unit of Shandong Haolong Group, produces passenger, light truck and medium truck radials, with a declared annual capacity of 33 million units. Shandong Deruibao also is a private brand supplier to a number of U.S. distributors.
Shandong Haolong Rubber Tire, another tire arm of Shandong Haolong Group, is among the petitioners in the US anti-dumping investigation and was given a 28-percent rate in the preliminary determination.
Shandong Deruibao was not singled out in the U.S. Commerce Department's list of companies subject to anti-dumping duties, meaning it is subject to the 87.99-percent countrywide duty, plus the 12.03-percent countervailing duty.
Secretary-general of China Rubber Industry Association's tire sub-commission Shi Yifeng told ERJ: “There are bound to be a reshuffle in the sector due to reasons such as overexpansion. It's not fair to say the U.S. anti-dumping tariffs are the trigger.”
Deruibao made headlines last year when it was identified by American Pacific Industries Inc. (API) as the producer of a line of Gladiator-brand tires that were exported to the U.S. from China “unlawfully” without API's knowledge and were deemed potentially unsafe.
The tires were the subject of a recall.
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Jane Ho is a correspondent for European Rubber Journal, a U.K.-based sister publication of Tire Business.
