Tariffs threat already impacting European TBR market

Birmingham, UK – While details of tariffs to be imposed by the EU on truck & bus tires originating from China have yet to emerge, the impending move is already having an impact on the market.

At the Commercial Vehicle Show 2018 in Birmingham’s NEC, dealers reported significant increases on the prices of Chinese TBR tires, to allow for tariffs that are expected to be back-dated to 1 Feb.

One distributor of Chinese tires, who preferred not to be identified, said suppliers had been adding up to 37% to the price of their tires. This, he noted, was in-line with official advice, ahead on an anticipated announcement by the European Commission (EC) on 11 May.

The UK-based distributor also warned about supply and pricing issues for the market, even if only a proportion of the TBR tires imported from China were removed from the market.

Eurostat figures indicate that 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 EC is currently conducting a 15-month anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation in Chinese TBR imports. An announcement of provisional measures is expected on 11 May.

This will confirm whether anti-dumping duties and anti-subsidy duties will be applied and at what level – ahead of conclusions of the investigation to be published in November.

To facilitate the imposition of duties, regulation EU 2018/163 required all new and retread TBR tires imported from China on or after 3 Feb to be registered.

Estimates in the EC investigation documents indicate that many Chinese TBR tires are being under-priced by around 26-37% within the European market.