WASHINGTON — The commissioners of the International Trade Commission (ITC) voted unanimously today to authorize a full investigation into allegations that certain manufacturers based in Thailand are selling truck/bus tires in the U.S. at less than fair valuation.
A preliminary determination by the Commerce Department on duties is not expected before late March 2024, the ITC said Nov. 30.
The ITC commissioners reached their decision based on testimony from a one-day hearing in early November and dozens of written submissions, predominantly from parties that oppose the investigation.
The investigation is in response to a petition from the United Steelworkers (USW) union, which is seeking elevated anti-dumping duties on truck/bus tires from Thailand.
Based on research it conducted over several months in 2022-2023, the USW claims that Thai truck/bus tires are being dumped in the U.S. at margins up to 47.8%.
According to a timeline published by the International Trade Administration (ITA), Commerce has until March 25, 2024, to make public its preliminary determination on the duties, including the antidumping rate and whether antidumping duties would be applied on all truck/bus tire imports from Thailand equally or if specific companies would be levied differing levels of duty.
Once that happens, interested parties will be invited to comment.
Commerce then has until June 10, 2024, to issue a final determination, taking into account any comments that may have been submitted. After that, the ITC will have until July 25, 2024, to review Commerce’s decision and issue its own final determination.
The issuance of the detailed final order is scheduled for Aug. 1, 2024.
All those dates could be postponed pending certain circumstances.
In the end, the federal government's decision whether to impose elevated import duties on truck/bus tires from Thailand may depend on whether the Commerce Department officials reviewing the case believe in tier segmentation or not.
USW representatives told ITC officials at the Nov. 7 hearing that they believe the tire industry's tier-pricing structure is little more than hyperbole and that nearly all tire brands compete on equal footing.
Representatives of Thai tire producers and importers of tires sourced from Thailand, on the other hand, argue that their products are sold predominantly in the Tier III and Tier IV categories, rarely competing with Tier I or II brands from the U.S.-based manufacturers, and therefore do not present a potential harm to the U.S. tire industry.
Prinx Chengshan Tire North America Inc. was the only company opposing the USW's petition to testify in person. Sam Felberbaum, president, Ken Coltrane, vice president, marketing and development, and Michal Chu, CEO, were on hand to provide both prepared statements and to answer questions from the commissioners.
Felberbaum and Coltrane argued that domestically produced truck tires are sold predominantly to OE customers and major fleet customers, where contract terms are negotiated directly between the fleets and the tire makers and include value-added components such as mounting/balancing costs, roadside assistance, tire-tracking, favorable retreading terms, real-time inventory access, etc.
Tire makers/brands active in the Tier III/IV categories, on the other hand, compete much more heavily on price alone and service the independent trucking fleets and owner-operators to a much greater degree than do the major brands, Felberbaum and Coltrane testified.
Other import/wholesale companies that have submitted written testimony on the matter include: American Omni Trading Co.; American Pacific Industries Inc.; America Tire Distributors Inc.; China Manufacturers Alliance L.L.C.; Deestone Corp. P.C.Ltd.; Delta Wholesale Inc.; Empresas Del Rio Rey Inc.; Foreign Tire Sales Inc.; Global Tyre Solutions Inc.; Horizon Tire Inc.; Huayi Group (Thailand) Company Ltd.; Jinyu Tire USA Co. Ltd. Inc.; North American Commercial Tire Resources Inc.; Omni United (S) Pte. Ltd.; Otani Radial Co. Ltd.; Statewide Tires Inc.; Sutong Tire Resources Inc.; TBC Corp.; Tire Get Inc.; Tire Group International L.L.C.; Total Tire USA Inc.; Tyres International Inc.; Toyo Tire U.S.A. Inc.; and ZC Rubber America Inc.
Of these, however, only American Omni's testimony was submitted as a public document. All the other submissions are listed as confidential. It's not clear why Prinx Chengshan was the only company of those listed above to testify in person.
In addition, several tire manufacturers submitted testimony or questionnaire responses, all of which are shown as confidential: Bridgestone America Inc.; Continental Tire the Americas Inc.; Goodyear; Michelin North America Inc.; Sumitomo Rubber North America Inc.; and Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi.
None of the U.S.-based tire makers potentially impacted by an antidumping ruling have voiced an opinion publicly for or against the possibility of duties.
Truck and bus tire imports from Thailand, fueled by Chinese investments, have more than doubled in the past three years to 10.2 million units in 2022.
Imports of medium truck/bus tires overall shot up 38% last year to a record 23.9 million units. Thailand's shipments account for nearly 43% of all imports and over three times the number of No. 2 Vietnam, according to Tire Business' analysis of the available import/export data.
A large percentage of truck/bus tires imported from Thailand are from subsidiaries of Chinese tire makers such as Double Coin, Jiangsu General Science Technology, Shandong Linglong, Prinx Chengshan, Sentury Group and ZC Rubber.
