Stoughton Trailers accuses Chinese makers of dry-freight trucking containers of flooding the U.S. market with imports priced far below fair value.
The company filed the unfair trade petition seeking an investigation and sanctions against the Chinese manufacturers this week with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission.
It alleges the foreign companies have gained an unfair competitive advantage by "dumping" their product -- 53-foot-long standard shipping containers for the trucking industry that Stoughton Trailers also makes -- at ultra-low prices made possible through subsidies from the Chinese government. It asks the federal government to apply tariffs on the imports so that Stoughton Trailers can "compete on a level playing field," company president Robert P. Wahlin said.
Stoughton Trailers is the leading domestic manufacturer of dry-freight containers. But it has seen production of the containers at its Evansville facility plummet, Stoughton Trailers spokesman Scott Nachreiner said, because price undercutting has allowed Chinese companies to control 95 percent of the U.S. market over the last several years.
"We have around 100 employees currently in Evansville," he said. "When we were doing well in containers, we were closer to 400 at that plant."
Former Evansville employees were invited to transfer to the company's Stoughton facility to help build a different product -- semi-trailers for the dry van business -- which has seen a big surge in business, partially making up for the container downturn.
Stoughton Trailers now has about 1,000 total employees, Nachreiner said, up from as low as 250 people during the recession, with hiring for the increased semi-trailer business continuing now.
But Nachreiner said the anti-trade petition was still "vital" to the success of the Evansville plant, and to the company's ability to hire more people for it.
"It's been an amazing turnaround (since the recession), but obviously we would still like to recoup the business that was lost in containers," he said. "We already have the facility and tooling in place, and it's a lift to the surrounding community."
The regulatory timeline for the company's anti-trade petition calls for a preliminary ruling and possible escrow of monies for tariff impositions by mid-to-late summer, the company said, with a final ruling and imposition of any tariffs assessed by early 2015.
Stoughton Trailers is one of an increasing number of U.S. companies and industry associations to file unfair trade petitions against Chinese companies since 2009. Others include the makers of solar panels, coated paper, and hardwood and decorative plywood products.
Copyright 2014 - The Wisconsin State Journal
