Shandong Deruibao Tire Co. Ltd., producer of the Deruibao and Faralong brands, has filed for government-coordinated restructuring due to “financial constraints,” according to the local municipality government.
“The company is not bankrupt, and it’s only asset restructuring,” the Guangrao government’s external communication office told European Rubber Journal. “We’ve set up a special task force to handle this and everything is going orderly.”
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 tyre 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 tyre arm of Shandong Haolong Group, is among the petitioners in the US anti-dumping investigation and was given a 28-% 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-% countrywide duty, plus the 12.03-% countervailing duty.
Secretary-general of China Rubber Industry Association’s tyre 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 tyres that were exported to the U.S. from China “unlawfully” without API’s knowledge and were deemed potentially unsafe.
The tyres were the subject of a recall.