A US ruling slapping heavy duties on Chinese tyres was flawed, Beijing said, urging Washington to handle the case "prudently".

The US Commerce Department on Wednesday announced a preliminary judgement levying anti-dumping duties of between 19.17 and 87.99 percent on car and light-truck tyres made in China. A final decision is due in June.

Dumping occurs when a product is sold in a foreign market at less than its domestic price or cost of production.

China's commerce ministry responded that the ruling had "multiple flaws" and the government is "seriously concerned".

"Data showed that the US domestic tyre producers have good profits and imported products from China did not cause harm to the US domestic industry," an unnamed ministry official said in a statement late Thursday.

Chinese tyres have previously had punitive tariffs imposed on them by the US, for three years from 2009. The rate started at 35 percent and was reduced by five percentage points each year.

Those duties "caused severe harm to China-US trade relations", the official said in the statement.

"(We) hope the US will draw a lesson from that and handle this case in a prudent way to avoid once again undermining cooperation between the two countries' relevant industries and generating unharmonious elements for China-US trade," said the official.

The US ruling came on the same day a trade panel cleared the way for duties on certain solar cell products made in China and Taiwan allegedly being unfairly subsidised and dumped.