EU confirms anti-dumping duties on Chinese PCR tires

Brussels – The European Commission (EC) has imposed definitive anti-dumping duties ranging from 4.3% to 45.3% on passenger car and light truck tire imports from China, concluding that dumped imports caused "material injury" to the EU tire industry.

The measures, published 7 July, cover new pneumatic rubber tires for passenger cars and buses or lorries with a load index not exceeding 121, classified under CN codes 4011 10 00 and 4011 20 10.

Under the regulation, Hankook Group will face a duty of 4.3%, while Shandong Yongsheng Rubber Group will be subject to the highest rate of 45.3%.

Some 64 'cooperating' Chinese producers, including global brands’ Chinese plants for Pirelli, Goodyear, Continental and Sumitomo Rubber will be subject to a 24.4% duty,.

All other imports from China will attract a 45.3% tariff.

The duties enter into force on 8 July, the day after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The EC concluded that "dumped imports from the PRC caused material injury to the Union industry" and found that other factors did not weaken "the causal link between the dumped imports and the material injury."

According to the regulation, Chinese tire imports increased by more than 35 million units during the investigation period, raising their EU market share from 18% to 28%, while the EU industry's share declined from 60% to 53%.

The Brussels authority also found that prices of dumped Chinese imports undercut EU industry prices, by an average of around 19%, rising to 34.7% for tier-3 tires.

European tire industry indicators – for production, capacity utilisation, sales volumes, market-share, employment, profitability and productivity – all showed "a clear negative trend" during the period of investigation.

While acknowledging limited positive developments in cash-flow and return-on0investment, the EC concluded that these were outweighed by the broader deterioration in market conditions.

Cost increases, it added, exceeded increases in selling prices across all tire segments, resulting in lower profitability.

In the budget, tier-three, segment, the Commission said the business had become "economically non-viable" for EU producers as they faced increasing volumes of dumped imports from China.

The anti-dumping investigation was launched in May 2025 following a complaint by the Coalition Against Unfair Tyre Imports and covered the period from 1 Jan to 31 Dec 2024.

As provisional measures were not imposed in the proceedings, conditions for the retroactive application of the definitive anti-dumping duties were not met.