Trelleborg unit appealing OTR tire import duties

New York — Trelleborg Wheel Systems (Xingtai) Co. Ltd. has followed four other Chinese off-the-road (OTR) tire manufacturers in appealing stiff new antidumping duties from the U.S. department of commerce.

Trelleborg filed a complaint with the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) May 15, alleging that Commerce's decisions in its antidumping review of Chinese OTR tires for the period between Sept. 1, 2014 and Aug. 31, 2015 were not based on substantial evidence.

The tire maker asked the CIT to remand the decision to Commerce, as well as provide "such other relief as this court deems just and proper."

Four other Chinese OTR tire makers—Xuzhou Xugong Tyres Co. Ltd., Aeolus Tyre Co. Ltd., Guizhou Tyre Co. Ltd and Qingdao Free Trade Zone Full-World International Trading Co. Ltd—filed complaints with the CIT May 4 and 5.

Their complaints covered both the 2014-15 antidumping review and the countervailing duty review for calendar year 2014.

In the countervailing review decision published in the April 18 Federal Register, Commerce revised countervailing duties for the period of review to between 34.46% and 46.01%. In the antidumping review decision published April 21, the agency revised antidumping duties to between 33.08% (the rate issued against Trelleborg) and 105.31%.

In its complaint, Trelleborg said that Commerce assigned it the same antidumping rate as Xugong, which was the only individually examined company in the agency's review.

"Commerce erred in its calculation of the 33.08-percent separate rate for Xugong, because Commerce's treatment of VAT (value-added tax) in its U.S. net price calculation for Xugong is unsupported by substantial evidence and is otherwise not in accordance with the law," Trelleborg said.

There is no timetable for the CIT to act on the Chinese tire makers' complaints. Titan International Inc., which filed the original 2007 petitions for relief from Chinese OTR imports in tandem with the United Steelworkers union, issued a press release in April praising the Commerce decision.