The retribution has come, and the American manufacturer Pitts has demanded tariffs on China
According to a Bloomberg report on the 8th, US local enterprises and Chinese enterprises located in these two small towns have launched a tariff tug of war for nearly 5 years around the import of container skeleton vehicles.
The United States has long been the most frequent user of anti-dumping and countervailing duties, and Chinese goods have increasingly become the target of its attacks. However, after the US Congress passed a law in 2015 allowing any interested party to launch an investigation into tariff evasion, the situation changed, and Chinese companies began to actively use the rules to fight back against the "unilateral beating".
Pitts, a manufacturer based in Pittsview, entered the chassis market in 2017 and began selling container trailers. Jeff Pitts, Pitts' president, said the company quickly ran into trouble in the face of intense competition from China. So in July 2020, Pitts and four other U.S. trailer manufacturers petitioned Washington to impose tariffs on chassis made by China's state-owned container giant, China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., or CIMC.
In May 2021, the Biden administration finally ruled to impose a tariff of more than 220% on container skeleton vehicles and their components imported from China, after the previous Trump administration had set a 25% tariff. This means that the price of a Chinese skeleton car that was originally only $10,000 has skyrocketed to $35,000.
It comes at a time of supply chain disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, during which a shortage of trailers has left piles of containers stranded at ports, creating soaring inflation and a cost-of-living crisis that has become a political liability for Biden, with the US economy and this year's election still hanging over it.
U.S. trailer makers cheered the vacated market, promising to ramp up production and hire hundreds of new workers. At the same time, they continued to write to Biden, urging him to keep the tariffs in place on the grounds that the supply of equipment dominated by Chinese companies in the U.S. supply chain would threaten national security.
With some malicious interference, Pitts' business picked up. However, the good times did not last long, and this provocative American company soon realized what is called "stealing chicken does not erode rice."
At the same time, CIMC Vehicles, a subsidiary of CIMC, renamed its wholly owned US subsidiary CIE to avoid the impact of the new tariffs and invested more than $20m to build a wholly China-independent supply chain.
"It's put a fair amount of pressure on our company," said Pierson, the Pitts president. He insisted the company had done nothing wrong. He said the U.S. Customs ruling cost the company, which normally earns $50 million a year in net revenue, $250 million in expected total revenue. The company was forced to postpone a planned investment of up to $15 million. The plan is to increase efficiency and add more first-class equipment to its 300 employees.
By the end of July, Hicks was down to the last two dozen people at his factory, and he was desperate for the future. "If that's the state of the business, there's really nothing we can do," he said. The trailer market has shrunk due to sluggish freight traffic and an oversupply of chassis. For CIE employees in Emporia and Pitts workers in Pittsview, it seems everyone is a loser.
Cimc Vehicles said that in the first half of the year, the North American business adhered to the compliance operation, successfully passed the investigation of the US Customs and Border Protection, the operation safety was improved, and was conducive to promoting the steady development of the North American container skeleton vehicle business after returning to normal, and the company will continue to deeply cultivate the North American business.
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The United States has long been the most frequent user of anti-dumping and countervailing duties, and Chinese goods have increasingly become the target of its attacks. However, after the US Congress passed a law in 2015 allowing any interested party to launch an investigation into tariff evasion, the situation changed, and Chinese companies began to actively use the rules to fight back against the "unilateral beating".
Pitts, a manufacturer based in Pittsview, entered the chassis market in 2017 and began selling container trailers. Jeff Pitts, Pitts' president, said the company quickly ran into trouble in the face of intense competition from China. So in July 2020, Pitts and four other U.S. trailer manufacturers petitioned Washington to impose tariffs on chassis made by China's state-owned container giant, China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., or CIMC.
In May 2021, the Biden administration finally ruled to impose a tariff of more than 220% on container skeleton vehicles and their components imported from China, after the previous Trump administration had set a 25% tariff. This means that the price of a Chinese skeleton car that was originally only $10,000 has skyrocketed to $35,000.
It comes at a time of supply chain disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, during which a shortage of trailers has left piles of containers stranded at ports, creating soaring inflation and a cost-of-living crisis that has become a political liability for Biden, with the US economy and this year's election still hanging over it.
U.S. trailer makers cheered the vacated market, promising to ramp up production and hire hundreds of new workers. At the same time, they continued to write to Biden, urging him to keep the tariffs in place on the grounds that the supply of equipment dominated by Chinese companies in the U.S. supply chain would threaten national security.
With some malicious interference, Pitts' business picked up. However, the good times did not last long, and this provocative American company soon realized what is called "stealing chicken does not erode rice."
At the same time, CIMC Vehicles, a subsidiary of CIMC, renamed its wholly owned US subsidiary CIE to avoid the impact of the new tariffs and invested more than $20m to build a wholly China-independent supply chain.
"It's put a fair amount of pressure on our company," said Pierson, the Pitts president. He insisted the company had done nothing wrong. He said the U.S. Customs ruling cost the company, which normally earns $50 million a year in net revenue, $250 million in expected total revenue. The company was forced to postpone a planned investment of up to $15 million. The plan is to increase efficiency and add more first-class equipment to its 300 employees.
By the end of July, Hicks was down to the last two dozen people at his factory, and he was desperate for the future. "If that's the state of the business, there's really nothing we can do," he said. The trailer market has shrunk due to sluggish freight traffic and an oversupply of chassis. For CIE employees in Emporia and Pitts workers in Pittsview, it seems everyone is a loser.
Cimc Vehicles said that in the first half of the year, the North American business adhered to the compliance operation, successfully passed the investigation of the US Customs and Border Protection, the operation safety was improved, and was conducive to promoting the steady development of the North American container skeleton vehicle business after returning to normal, and the company will continue to deeply cultivate the North American business.
Article materials organized from the major media websites, infringement please contact delete
