Stoughton Trailers, LLC has filed an unfair trade petition with the U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission asking for an investigation into the actions of its Chinese competitors.
Stoughton Trailers, the only U.S. producer of 53-foot-long domestic dry containers used in the transportation industry, claims that Chinese imports of such containers are sold in the U.S. at dumped or subsidized prices. The result, the petition claims, is a domestic container industry that has been “materially retarded,” or unusually prevented from developing as it would in a free market. Stoughton Trailers’ Evansville, Wis., manufacturing plant has been directly and negatively impacted, the petition claims.
Chinese competitors now control 95% of the U.S. container market.
The Stoughton company is asking the U.S. government to investigate and apply anti-dumping and countervailing duties on domestic containers from China. In a report from Truckinginfo.com, Stoughton Trailers President Robert P. Wahlin said the market share growth of the Chinese companies has not been earned on a “level playing field.”
