Chinese-made tire imports gain shares

Chinese-made car tires increased their share of the U.S. replacement market last year by more than two percentage points to roughly 20 percent, based on a 17.1-percent jump in imports and a 4.4-percent drop in U.S. aftermarket shipments.

Assuming most if not all Chinese-made tires were shipped into the aftermarket, the 39.6 million units imported from China would mean one out of five replacement tires sold in the U.S. last year came from there, based on Tire Business' annual analysis of the most recent U.S. Department of Commerce and Rubber Manufacturers Association data.

It's this growth that prompted the United Steelworkers (USW) to petition the International Trade Commission seeking a limit to the surging number of consumer tires imported from China.

In its petition, the USW claims the flood of imported tires from China has led to more than 4,400 job losses and four plant closings in the past five years, plus two more closures and 2,400 job reductions announced in the last four months.

Overall, car tire imports were up 2.2 percent last year to 118.9 million units, although the increase came almost entirely from increased shipments from China, Mexico and Thailand. Imports from these three countries last year were 7.8 million units higher than in 2007, while shipments from all other countries fell more than 5.3 million units, according to year-end Commerce Department data.

Last year South Korea was the No. 3 exporter of passenger tires to the U.S., surpassing Canada for the first time, as shipments from Korea fell just 0.9 percent from 2007 whereas those from Canada dropped 10.1 percent.

New to the top 10 countries-of-origin list last year was Thailand, which increased its exports to the U.S. by 64.3 percent to 3.32 million units.

Imports of light truck and medium truck tires fell 15.7 and 15.1 percent, respectively, last year from 2007. Despite the declines, imports increased their market presence in the U.S. as the overall markets declined even more.

In the light truck category, imports of 20.3 million units represented roughly 69 percent of the U.S. aftermarket. In the medium truck/bus category, imports of 9.37 million units accounted for about 63 percent of the aftermarket for new tires, according to a comparison of the import and industry data.

While the unit numbers fell in most cases across the board, the value of imports increased almost universally, reflecting the surge in selling prices the industry experienced throughout the first two-thirds of 2008.

The average declared value of an imported passenger tire last year was $42.75, up 8.8 percent over 2007. Among the top 10 countries of origin, the value ranged from $29.56 for Indonesia to $72.11 for Germany.

The average value of an imported light truck tire rose 6.3 percent over 2007 to $62.92, with a range of $49.58 for Vietnam to $88.65 for Germany.

In the medium truck/bus tire category, the average import value was $152.37, up 9 percent over 2007. The range among the top 10 was $44.14 for India—reflecting the predominance of bias-ply tires from that country—to $256.93 for France.

On the export side, U.S.-based tire makers sent 5.6-percent more car tires and 9.3-percent more light truck tires outside the country, but medium truck/bus exports fell 7.1 percent.

The average value of an exported car tire was $56.76; that of an exported light truck tire was $100.67; and that of a medium truck/bus tire exported was $216.17.

The trade deficit for 2008 for these three tire categories was $5.05 billion—unchanged from 2007

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