Shandong briefing tire firms on tariffs

SHANDONG PROVINCE, China (Nov. 11, 2014) — The Department of Commerce of Shandong Province has been offering training programs since August to local tire companies involved in the U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing probe on Chinese tires, according to Fang Xiaojie, head of fair trade division of the department.

“There’s not much we can do, but we’ve been getting them familiar with U.S. regulations and letting them know what U.S. law firms are good in this area and they can choose from,” Mr. Fang said.

In October, Qingdao Sailun Tyre Co. Ltd. and Cooper Chengshan Tire Co. Ltd., two tire companies based in Shandong, China, were added as mandatory respondents in the investigation.

According to an announcement by Sailun in August, the company is not expecting a severe impact from the probe. During the period from 2011 to the first quarter of 2014, only 10 percent of the company’s revenue came from sales of steel-belted tires to the U.S. market.

In addition, Sailun set up a subsidiary in 2012 in Vietnam with planned capacity of 7.8 million/year steel belted radial tires and 15,000 tons per year of all-steel engineering tires.

“An important reason for [setting up the subsidiary] is to avoid tariff barriers from Europe and the U.S.,” Sailun said.

“We are also trying to make the companies fully understand the importance of this investigation,” Mr. Fang said. “Their responses would affect the whole industry.”

“We’ve been doing the best we can, but based on the current situation the results are not looking good,” he added.