Window of opportunity for European TBR sector

Birmingham, UK - The imposition of tariffs on Chinese truck & bus tire imports last year has opened a window of opportunity for EU tire makers and retreaders – but it won’t stay open indefinitely.

Imports went from a peak of around 500,000 to 600,000 tires/month to a trough of around 60,000 units/month in September of 2018, Heywood said in an interview at the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham in May.

Heywood went on to describe how the huge gap left by the fall-off in Chinese imports has been filled in several ways.

This, he noted, has included a significant increase in retreading – mainly hot retread recovery – with much of the remaining shortfall filled by other manufacturers offering tier 2 and/or tier 3 brands.

Another “part of the story” in the EU has been the increase in imports coming in from non-Chinese sources, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia, Egypt, the Hankook director continued.

Also filling the gap have been Turkish tire manufacturers, Heywood reporting: “They had a certain market locally, but now they have a European market with real demand that could otherwise not be filled.

For further details see Hankook interview, p45 European Rubber Journal July/August 2019 issue.