By Stephen Downer, Special to Tire Business
MEXICO CITY — Mexico's federal government is failing to tackle the issue of used tire imports, the head of Mexico's tire dealers association claims.
These tires are dangerous, according to Elizabeth Ventura Rendón, president of ANDELLAC (Asociación Nacional de Distribuidores de Llantas y Plantas Renovadoras AC), which represents most of the country's 2,400 tire dealers.
Simply put, Ms. Ventura Rendón wants the government to ban them.
“But the only thing we get from the authorities is evasiveness and the promise that the number of import permits for such tires will not be increased,” she told Tire Business in an email.
While the official government quota is 840,000 used tires a year, in recent years legal imports have risen to 1.2 million a year, according to Mexico's national rubber industry chamber CNIH.
Like others in the industry, Ms. Ventura Rendón said she believes the imports are probably much higher. “Naturally, these figures do not take into account the tires that are smuggled in and sold — not only in the north but on city streets across the middle of Mexico,” she wrote in her email.
Used tire imports account for 60 percent of the national market for commercial vehicle tires, from 20-inch- diameter rims and upward, she added.
Stephen Downer is a Mexico-based freelance writer who covers that country and Latin America for Tire Business and its Latin America e-newsletter.