Titan International Files for Anti-Dumping Relief from OTR Tire Imports

Titan International, Inc. (NYSE: TWI) announced that it has filed petitions for relief from imports of off-the-road (“OTR”) tires from China, India, and Sri Lanka.

The petitions, filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce, allege that imports from China and India are being dumped in the U.S. market, imports from all three countries are benefitting from government subsidies, and the imports are causing material injury to the domestic industry producing OTR tires.  The petitions were filed jointly with the United Steelworkers union.

“In 2007 Titan won antidumping and countervailing duties on OTR tires from China, but over the past few years there have been a number of companies putting wheels into the tires to get around the duties,” stated Maurice Taylor, CEO and Chairman. “This has become a large problem because some overseas operators have actually advertised on their websites how to beat duties.  So our petitions address tires from China which enter mounted on a wheel or rim. We have also added India and Sri Lanka to this new action.”

He continued, “Too many domestic industries have been overwhelmed with unfair trade practices that capture sales of U.S. companies, depressed prices, reduced profitability and inability to maintain facilities and jobs.  Titan has been fighting for the last eight years to safeguard the rights of U.S. producers of certain OTR tires and their workers to conditions of fair trade.”

In 2014, imports from China, India, and Sri Lanka accounted for an estimated 41 percent of all such imports from the world, though the actual number is likely higher due to the inclusion of mounted tires not broken out in the import data.

Imports from the three countries have grown significantly since 2012, even as demand in key end use segments has fallen due to declining farm income and low commodity prices.

Category: General Update, Wheels & Tires