‘Play-fair’ call after China tire probe

Based on article published in the Nov/Dec issue of European Rubber Journal magazine

The European Commission announced in August that it was probing the issue following a complaint lodged by the “coalition against unfair tire imports” on behalf of producers representing over 45% of total EU production of new and retreaded TBR tires.

The move, said the EC, was based on information from the complainant, which indicated “significant” dumping margins on Chinese-made tires and that imports had increased both in terms of volumes and market share.

The ETRMA had no role in initiating the investigation but was “perfectly aware of” the negative impact of low-priced tires on the retreading sector, said Fazilet Cinaralp, secretary general of the association.

“This is something that we all feel very sorry about, particularly because this segment is mostly run by SMEs,” Cinaralp commented in a telephone interview with ERJ.

According to the latest Eurostat figures, imports of light truck tires and truck tires from China to Europe almost quadrupled from 1.4 million units in 2010 to 4.37 million units in 2016.

The data also indicates that import levels for 2017 will be on a par with the year before, if not higher. By end of June, nearly 2.4 million truck tire units were imported into Europe from China – a 116% rise compared to the first half of 2016.

The anti-dumping probe will seek to establish whether or not tires are being dumped in Europe and whether the dumped imports have caused injury to the EU tire industry.

The investigation process foresees sampling of individual producers, both from the EU and importers and the ETRMA aims to monitor developments as “an informed party”.

“If called upon by EU authorities, ETRMA will cooperate with official market data in the interest of objective investigation,” the secretary general said.