Cheap imports hit European retreaders

By Shahrzad Pourriahi, Crain News Service

LONDON (Dec. 3, 2015) — In a recent meeting with United Kingdom government ministers, the Retread Manufacturers Association (RMA) presented data illustrating how the “dumping” of inexpensive tires is having a “devastating impact” on the retread tire industry across Europe.

According to the RMA, evidence of dumping taking place is clear by simply comparing the cost of raw material and the retail price of Asian imports.

For a truck tire, which typically weighs 132 pounds, the materials cost approximately 80 cents per pound, yielding a total cost of $105, it estimates.

However these tires are retailing in the U.K. market at around $101, the RMA said, leaving a margin of just $4.50 or so for manufacturing, transportation, import duty and profit.

“That is an impossibly low amount for a commercial operation to sustain without significant subsidies from a backing organization or government,” the RMA said.

The association called on the U.K. government to take urgent action to allow the local retread industry to compete on an “equal footing” with the “cheap and subsidized imports flooding in.”

The RMA did not single out any specific countries in its assessment.

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This report appeared on the website of European Rubber Journal, a United Kingdom-based sister publication of Tire Business.