[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 176 (Tuesday, September 11, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45893-45897]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-19699]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-016]


Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires From the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty 
Administrative Review, Preliminary Determination of No Shipments, and 
Rescission, in Part; 2016-2017

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines 
that certain producers and exporters of passenger vehicle and light 
truck tires (passenger tires) from the People's Republic of China 
(China) made sales of subject merchandise at prices below normal value 
(NV) during the period of review (POR) August 1, 2016, through July 31, 
2017.

DATES: Applicable September 11, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Toni Page, AD/CVD Operations, Office 
VII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration,

[[Page 45894]]

U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, 
DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-1398.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On August 10, 2015, Commerce issued an antidumping duty (AD) order 
on passenger tires from China.\1\ Several interested parties requested 
that Commerce conduct an administrative review of the AD Order, and on 
October 16, 2017, Commerce published in the Federal Register a notice 
of initiation of an administrative review of the AD Order for 59 
producers/exporters for the POR.\2\ Commerce exercised its discretion 
to toll all deadlines affected by the closure of the Federal Government 
from January 20 through 22, 2018.\3\
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    \1\ See Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires from the 
People's Republic of China: Amended Final Affirmative Antidumping 
Duty Determination and Antidumping Duty Order; and Amended Final 
Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and Countervailing 
Duty Order, 80 FR 47902 (August 10, 2015) (AD Order).
    \2\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 82 FR 48051 (October 16, 2017) (Initiation 
Notice). The Initiation Notice inadvertently misspelled the names of 
two producer/exporters, which were corrected in a subsequent 
publication. See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 82 FR 57705 (December 7, 2017).
    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Deadlines Affected by the Shutdown of the 
Federal Government'' (Tolling Memorandum), (January 23, 2018). All 
deadlines in this segment of the proceeding have been extended by 
three days.
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Scope of the Order

    The products covered by the order are certain passenger vehicle and 
light truck tires from China. A full description of the scope of the 
order is contained in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\4\
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    \4\ See ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Results of the 
Antidumping Duty Administrative Review of Certain Passenger Vehicle 
and Light Truck Tires from the People's Republic of China, 
Preliminary Determination of No Shipments; and Rescission, in part; 
2016-2017,'' (September 4, 2018) (Preliminary Decision Memorandum).
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Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this review in accordance with section 
751(a)(1)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Commerce 
preliminarily determines that Junhong's reported U.S. sales were export 
price (EP). We calculated EP sales in accordance with section 772 of 
the Act. Given that China is a non-market economy (NME) country, within 
the meaning of section 771(18) of the Act, Commerce calculated NV in 
accordance with section 773(c) of the Act.
    For a full description of the methodology underlying the 
preliminary results of this review, see the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum, which is hereby adopted by this notice. The Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum is a public document and is made available to the 
public via Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping and Countervailing 
Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS). ACCESS is 
available to registered users at http://access.trade.gov, and is 
available to all parties in the Central Records Unit, room B8024 of the 
main Department of Commerce building. In addition, a complete version 
of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be found at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/. The signed and the electronic versions of 
the Preliminary Decision Memorandum are identical in content. A list of 
topics included in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is provided in 
Appendix 1 to this notice.

Partial Rescission of Administrative Review

    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(1), Commerce will rescind an 
administrative review, in whole or in part, if the party or parties 
that requested a review withdraws the request within 90 days of the 
publication date of the notice of initiation of the requested review. 
Actyon Tyre Resources Co., Limited; Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co., Ltd.; 
Hangzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd.; Hongtyre Goup Co.; ITG Voma 
Corporation; Koryo International Industrial Limited; Kumho Tire Co., 
Inc.; Crown International Corporation (Crown); Shandong Wanda Boto Tyre 
Co., Ltd. (Boto Tyre); Qingdao Nama Industrial Co., Ltd.; Shandong 
Changfeng Tyres Co., Ltd.; Shandong Guofeng Rubber Plastics; Shandong 
Guofeng Rubber Plastics Co., Ltd.; Shandong Zhongyi Rubber Co., Ltd.; 
Shengtai Group Co., Ltd.; The Yokohama Rubber Company, Ltd.; Tyrechamp 
Group Co., Limited; and the Sailun Group Co., Ltd. (i.e., Sailun Jinyu 
Group Co., Ltd.)/Sailun Tire International Corp./Shandong Jinyu 
Industrial Co., Ltd./Sailun Jinyu Group (Hong Kong) Co., Limited/
Dynamic Tire Corp./Husky Tire Corp./Seatex International Inc./Seatex 
PTE. Ltd.) withdrew their respective requests for an administrative 
review within 90 days of the publication date of the notice of 
initiation.
    When Commerce initiated the instant administrative review, we 
inadvertently did not include ITG Voma Corporation in the list of 
companies for which an administrative review was requested or 
initiated.\5\ As noted above, ITG Voma Corporation did timely file a 
withdrawal request. Therefore, we will accept its request and rescind 
this administrative review with respect to ITG Voma Corporation.
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    \5\ ITG Voma Corporation timely filed a request for an 
administrative review. See ITG Voma Corporation's letter, 
``Passenger Vehicle and Light Tires from the People's Republic of 
China: Request for Review--2016-2017 Review Period,'' (August 31, 
2017).
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    No other parties requested an administrative review of the order 
with respect to the aforementioned companies, except for Crown and Boto 
Tyre. Therefore, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.213(d)(1), Commerce is 
rescinding this review of the AD order on passenger tires from China 
with respect to the listed companies, except for Crown and Boto Tyre.
    As noted above, Crown and Boto Tyre timely filed withdrawal 
requests for their respective administrative reviews. However, the 
petitioner filed administrative review requests for these companies, 
but did not file any subsequent withdrawal requests. Therefore, both 
Crown and Boto Tyre are still subject to the instant administrative 
review. Boto Tyre timely filed a separate rate certification prior to 
its withdrawal request. We reviewed Boto Tyre's separate rate 
certification request and preliminarily find that it qualifies for 
separate rate status in this administrative review. Crown did not file 
a separate application or certificate and, thus, is preliminarily 
considered to be part of the China-wide entity.

Preliminary Determination of No Shipments

    Based on an analysis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 
information, and comments provided by interested parties, Commerce 
preliminarily determines that two companies under review, Federal Tire 
(Jiangxi), Ltd. and Highpoint Trading, Ltd. each had no shipments 
during the POR. For additional information regarding this 
determination, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
    Consistent with an announced refinement to its assessment practice 
in NME cases, Commerce is not rescinding this review, in part, but 
intends to complete the review with respect to the companies for which 
it has preliminarily found no shipments and issue appropriate 
instructions to CBP based on the final results of the review.\6\
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    \6\ See Non-Market Economy Antidumping Proceedings: Assessment 
of Antidumping Duties, 76 FR 65694, 65694-95 (October 24, 2011) and 
the ``Assessment Rates'' section, below.
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    In addition, six companies: Fleming Limited; Haohua Orient 
International

[[Page 45895]]

Trade Ltd.; Qingdao Lakesea Tyre Co., Ltd.; Riversun Industry Limited; 
Safe & Well (HK) International Trading Limited; and Windforce Tyre Co., 
Limited filed no shipment certifications, even though an administrative 
review was not requested for or initiated on their behalf. Because 
these companies are not subject to this review, Commerce will not 
inquire further regarding their no shipment status.
    Also, Best Choice International Trade Co., Limited (Best Choice) 
filed a no shipment certification; however, we previously collapsed 
Best Choice and BC Tyre into a single entity in the prior review.\7\ 
Because there is no evidence on the record that contradicts our prior 
collapsing determination or the evidence on this record, we 
preliminarily continue to find that BC Tyre and Best Choice is a single 
entity in this administrative review.\8\ Therefore, we preliminarily 
find that Best Choice does not qualify for no-shipment status and will 
be part of the China-wide entity. However, we intend to seek additional 
information from this entity following these preliminary results.
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    \7\ See the Preliminary Determination Memorandum at ``Discussion 
of Methodology.''
    \8\ Id. In addition, as explained in the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum, there is evidence on the record of this review that Best 
Choice and BC Tyre Group Limited continue to have intertwined 
operations in this review. For a business proprietary discussion of 
the Best Choice and BC Tyre Group Limited relationship, please see 
Commerce Memorandum, ``Antidumping Duty Administrative Review of 
Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires from the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Separate Rate Status,'' (September 4, 
2018) (Preliminary Separate Rate Memorandum).
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Separate Rates

    Commerce preliminarily determines that the information placed on 
the record by Junhong, as well as by the other companies listed in the 
rate table in the ``Preliminary Results of Review'' section below, 
demonstrates that these companies are entitled to separate rate status. 
Neither the Act nor Commerce's regulations address the establishment of 
the rate applied to individual companies not selected for examination 
where Commerce limited its examination in an administrative review 
pursuant to section 777A(c)(2) of the Act. Commerce's practice in cases 
involving limited selection based on exporters accounting for the 
largest volume of imports has been to look to section 735(c)(5) of the 
Act for guidance, which provides instructions for calculating the all-
others rate in an investigation. Section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act 
instructs Commerce to use rates established for individually 
investigated producers and exporters, excluding any rates that are 
zero, de minimis, or based entirely on facts available in 
investigations. In the instant administrative review, Junhong is the 
only reviewed respondent that received a calculated weighted-average 
margin. Therefore, for the preliminary results, Commerce has 
preliminarily determined to assign Junhong's margin to the non-selected 
separate-rate companies.
    In addition, Commerce preliminarily determines that certain 
companies have not demonstrated their entitlement to separate rate 
status because: (1) They withdrew their participation from the 
administrative review; or (2) they did not rebut the presumption of de 
jure or de facto government control of their operations.\9\ See 
Appendix 2 of this Federal Register notice for a complete list of 
companies not receiving a separate rate.
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    \9\ See Preliminary Denial of Separate Rate Status Memorandum 
for a complete discussion regarding the companies preliminarily not 
granted separate rate status.
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    Commerce is treating the companies for which it did not grant 
separate rate status as part of the China-wide entity. Because no party 
requested a review of the China-wide entity, the entity is not under 
review, and the entity's rate (i.e., 87.99 percent) \10\ is not subject 
to change.\11\
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    \10\ See Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires from 
the People's Republic of China: Amended Final Affirmative 
Antidumping Duty Determination and Antidumping Duty Order; and 
Amended Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and 
Countervailing Duty Order, 80 FR 47902, 47906 (August 10, 2015) 
(Order).
    \11\ For additional information regarding Commerce's separate 
rate determinations, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
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Adjustments for Countervailable Subsidies

    Commerce has preliminarily adjusted Junhong's U.S. price for export 
subsidies, pursuant to 772(c)(1)(C) of the Act, and domestic subsidies 
passed-through, pursuant to section 777A(f) of the Act.

Preliminary Results of Review

    As a result of this review, we preliminarily determine the 
weighted-average dumping margins rates to be:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             Weighted-
                                                              average
                        Exporter                          dumping margin
                                                             (percent)
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Zhaoqing Junhong Co., Ltd...............................           73.63
Jiangsu Hankook Tire Co., Ltd...........................           73.63
Kenda Rubber (China) Co., Ltd...........................           73.63
Mayrun Tyre (Hong Kong) Limited.........................           73.63
Qingdao Odyking Tyre Co., Ltd...........................           73.63
Qingdao Sentury Tire Co., Ltd./Sentury Tire USA Inc./              73.63
 Sentury (Hong Kong) Trading Co., Limited...............
Shandong Anchi Tyres Co., Ltd...........................           73.63
Shandong Hengyu Science & Technology Co., Ltd...........           73.63
Shandong Linglong Tyre Co., Ltd.........................           73.63
Shandong Longyue Rubber Co., Ltd........................           73.63
Shandong New Continent Tire Co., Ltd....................           73.63
Shandong Province Sanli Tire Manufactured Co., Ltd......           73.63
Shandong Shuangwang Rubber Co., Ltd.....................           73.63
Shandong Wanda Boto Tyre Co., Ltd.......................           73.63
Shandong Yongsheng Rubber Group Co., Ltd................           73.63
Shouguang Firemax Tyre Co., Ltd.........................           73.63
Winrun Tyre Co., Ltd....................................           73.63
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[[Page 45896]]

Disclosure and Public Comment

    Commerce intends to disclose to parties the calculations performed 
for these preliminary results of review within five days of the date of 
publication of this notice in the Federal Register in accordance with 
19 CFR 351.224(b). Interested parties may submit case briefs no later 
than 30 days after the date of publication of these preliminary results 
of review.\12\ Rebuttal briefs may be filed no later than five days 
after case briefs are due, and may respond only to arguments raised in 
the case briefs.\13\ A table of contents, list of authorities used, and 
an executive summary of issues should accompany any briefs submitted to 
Commerce. The summary should be limited to five pages total, including 
footnotes.\14\
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    \12\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(ii).
    \13\ See 19 CFR 351.309(d).
    \14\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2), (d)(2).
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    Interested parties who wish to request a hearing must submit a 
written request to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and 
Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce, within 30 days after the date 
of publication of this notice.\15\ Requests should contain the party's 
name, address, and telephone number, the number of participants in, and 
a list of the issues to be discussed at, the hearing. Oral arguments at 
the hearing will be limited to issues raised in the briefs. If a 
request for a hearing is made, Commerce intends to hold the hearing at 
the U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, 
Washington, DC 20230, at a date and time to be determined.\16\ Parties 
should confirm by telephone the date, time, and location of the hearing 
two days before the scheduled date of the hearing.
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    \15\ See 19 CFR 351.310(c).
    \16\ See 19 CFR 351.310(d).
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    All submissions, with limited exceptions, must be filed 
electronically using ACCESS.\17\ An electronically filed document must 
be received successfully in its entirety by Commerce's electronic 
records system, ACCESS, by 5 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the due 
date.Documents excepted from the electronic submission requirements 
must be filed manually (i.e., in paper form) with the APO/Dockets Unit 
in Room 18022 and stamped with the date and time of receipt by 5 p.m. 
ET on the due date.\18\
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    \17\ See generally 19 CFR 351.303.
    \18\ See 19 CFR 351.303 (for general filing requirements); 
Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings: Electronic Filing 
Procedures; Administrative Protective Order Procedures, 76 FR 39263 
(July 6, 2011).
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    Unless otherwise extended, Commerce intends to issue the final 
results of this administrative review, which will include the results 
of its analysis of issues raised in any briefs, within 120 days of 
publication of these preliminary results of review, pursuant to section 
751(a)(3)(A) of the Act.

Assessment Rates

    Upon issuance of the final results of this review, Commerce will 
determine, and CBP shall assess, antidumping duties on all appropriate 
entries covered by this review.\19\ Commerce intends to issue 
assessment instructions to CBP 15 days after the publication date of 
the final results of this review. For each individually examined 
respondent in this review whose weighted-average dumping margin in the 
final results of review is not zero or de minimis (i.e., less than 0.5 
percent), Commerce intends to calculate importer-specific assessment 
rates, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.212(b)(1).\20\ Where the 
respondent reported reliable entered values, Commerce intends to 
calculate importer-specific ad valorem assessment rates by aggregating 
the amount of dumping calculated for all U.S. sales to the importer, 
and dividing this amount by the total entered value of the sales to the 
importer.\21\ Where the importer did not report entered values, 
Commerce intends to calculate an importer-specific assessment rate by 
dividing the amount of dumping for reviewed sales to the importer by 
the total sales quantity associated with those transactions. Where an 
importer-specific ad valorem assessment rate is not zero or de minimis, 
Commerce will instruct CBP to collect the appropriate duties at the 
time of liquidation. Where either the respondent's weighted average 
dumping margin is zero or de minimis, or an importer-specific ad 
valorem assessment rate is zero or de minimis, Commerce will instruct 
CBP to liquidate appropriate entries without regard to antidumping 
duties.\22\
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    \19\ See 19 CFR 351.212(b)(1).
    \20\ See Antidumping Proceedings: Calculation of the Weighted 
Average Dumping Margin and Assessment Rate in Certain Antidumping 
Proceedings: Final Modification, 77 FR 8101 (February 14, 2012) 
(Final Modification).
    \21\ See 19 CFR 351.212(b)(1).
    \22\ See Final Modification, 77 FR at 8103.
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    Pursuant to Commerce practice, for entries that were not reported 
in the U.S. sales database submitted by an exporter individually 
examined during this review, Commerce will instruct CBP to liquidate 
such entries at the rate for the China-wide entity.\23\ Additionally, 
if Commerce determines that an exporter under review had no shipments 
of the subject merchandise, any suspended entries that entered under 
that exporter's CBP case number will be liquidated at the rate for the 
China-wide entity.
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    \23\ See Non-Market Economy Antidumping Proceedings: Assessment 
of Antidumping Duties, 76 FR 65694 (October 24, 2011), for a full 
discussion of this practice.
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    For the companies for which this review is rescinded, antidumping 
duties will be assessed at rates equal to the cash deposit of estimated 
antidumping duties required at the time of entry, or withdrawal from 
warehouse, for consumption, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.212(c)(l)(i). 
Commerce intends to issue appropriate assessment instructions with 
respect to the companies for which this review is rescinded to CBP 15 
days after the publication of this notice.
    In accordance with section 751(a)(2)(C) of the Act, the final 
results of this review shall be the basis for the assessment of 
antidumping duties on POR entries, and for future deposits of estimated 
antidumping duties, where applicable.

Cash Deposit Requirements

    Commerce will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit for 
antidumping duties equal to the weighted-average amount by which NV 
exceeds U.S. price. The following cash deposit requirements will be 
effective upon publication of the final results of this administrative 
review for shipments of the subject merchandise from China entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the publication 
date of this notice, as provided by section 751(a)(2)(C) of the Act: 
(1) For the exporters listed above, the cash deposit rate will be equal 
to the weighted-average dumping margin established in the final results 
of this review (except, if the rate is de minimis (i.e., less than 0.5 
percent), then the cash deposit rate will be zero for that exporter); 
(2) for previously investigated or reviewed China and non-China 
exporters not listed above that have separate rates, the cash deposit 
rate will continue to be the exporter-specific rate published for the 
most recently completed segment of this proceeding; (3) for all China 
exporters of subject merchandise which have not been found to be 
entitled to a separate rate, the cash deposit rate will be the rate for 
the China-wide entity (i.e., 76.46 percent) \24\ and (4) for all non-
China exporters of subject merchandise that have not received their own 
rate, the cash deposit rate will be the rate applicable to the China 
exporter that supplied that non- China exporter. These deposit 
requirements, when

[[Page 45897]]

imposed, shall remain in effect until further notice.
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    \24\ See Order, 80 FR 47904.
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Notification to Importers

    This notice also serves as a preliminary reminder to importers of 
their responsibility under 19 CFR 351.402(f)(2) to file a certificate 
regarding the reimbursement of antidumping duties and/or countervailing 
duties prior to liquidation of the relevant entries during this POR. 
Failure to comply with this requirement could result in Commerce's 
presumption that reimbursement of antidumping duties and/or 
countervailing duties has occurred, and the subsequent assessment of 
double antidumping duties and/or an increase in the amount of 
antidumping duties by the amount of the countervailing duties.
    These preliminary results are issued and published in accordance 
with sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.213 and 
351.221(b)(4).

    Dated: September 4, 2018.
Gary Taverman,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Operations performing the non-exclusive functions and duties of the 
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix 1

List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Partial Rescission of Administrative Review
IV. Scope of the Order
V. Discussion of the Methodology
VI. Recommendation

Appendix 2

List of Companies Not Receiving Separate Rate Status

1. BC Tyre Group Limited
2. Best Choice International Trade Co., Limited
3. Chen Shin Tire & Rubber (China) Co., Ltd.
4. Crown International Corporation
5. Hankook Tire China Co., Ltd.
6. Hebei Tianrui Rubber Co., Ltd.
7. Hong Kong Tiancheng Investment & Trading Co., Limited
8. Hong Kong Tri-Ace Tire Co., Limited
9. Hwa Fong Rubber (Hong Kong) Ltd.
10. Hwa Fong Rubber (Suzhou) Ltd.
11. Qingdao Fullrun Tyre Corp. Ltd.
12. Qingdao Fullrun Tyre Tech Corp. Ltd.
13. Qingdao Nexen Tire Corporation
14. Qingdao Qianzhen Tyre Co., Ltd.
15. Qingdao Qihang Tyre Co., Ltd.
16. Qingdao Qizhou Rubber Co., Ltd.
17. Shandong Duratti Rubber Corporation Co., Ltd.
18. Shandong Haohua Tire Co., Ltd.
19. Shandong Haolong Rubber Tire Co., Ltd.
20. Shandong Haolong Rubber Co., Ltd.
21. Shandgong Hongsheng Rubber Co., Ltd.
22. Shandong Province Sanli Tire
23. Shifeng Juxing Tire Co., Ltd.
24. Southeast Mariner International Co., Ltd.
25. Toyo Tire (Zhangjiagang) Co., Ltd.

[FR Doc. 2018-19699 Filed 9-10-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P