ATMA concerned over imports of cross-ply truck tyres

By David Shaw, ERJ staff report

Essen, Germany -- Neeraj Kanwar, president of the Association of Automotive tyre manufacturers (ATMA) in India has said his members are becoming increasingly concerned about imports of low-cost truck tyres in the cross-ply or bias construction.

Asked about the recent change in import restrictions on truck radials into India, Kanwar said the ruling changed an anomaly in the regulations. Until a few days ago, there were two elements to restrictions on truck radials into India. Importers had to have a licence and there were also import duties. The changes removed the need for a licence, so that anyone may now import truck radials freely, thoughthey still have to pay import duties.

Kanwar said, “You can now import freely but you still have to pay [the duty], so its fine now, it's fair." He added that with the duty, imported radials are coming in at prices comparable with the local market. he said ATMA has not problem with that, adding, "if it comes much lower than the Indian costs, then I have a problem.”

However, said Kanwar, as the Indian market changes, other products appear to be at a disadvantage compared with imported products, "“Other products are coming in, in a big way... passenger car tyres is something that we are looking at, we are also looking at truck bias." He said as the Chinese market shifts from cross-ply to radials, a lot of cross-ply capacity has become availabe, and the operators have started to enter export markets at agressive prices.

Kanwar said he wants free trade, but not if the imports come in at prices below Indian costs.