The world’s tire industry is waking up to fierce price competition, driven by tire makers in China selling below cost. This dire situation has been triggered by trade barriers erected in 2015 by the United States Department of Commerce against passenger car tires made in China. Although the number of imports has dropped by around half, car tire prices in the Unites States continue to fall. Want to learn more? David Shaw has written an exclusive free article for Automotive IQ on the topic of "Tire tariffs trigger price competition" Download the full article for free here: http://bit.ly/_Article_Shaw

1. Tire tariffs trigger price competition
The world’s tire industry is waking up to fierce price competition, driven by tire makers in China selling
below cost. This dire situation has been triggered by trade barriers erected in 2015 by the United States
Department of Commerce against passenger car tires made in China. Ironically, these were
implemented to reduce the import to the US of low-cost tires. Although the number of imports has
dropped by around half, car tire prices in the Unites States continue to fall.
Author: David Shaw
Imports of Chinese-made passenger car tires to the United States have fallen by around
half since the beginning of 2015 when the first estimates of import tariffs were published.
This fall is sharper than seen in the 2009 – 2012 period when the United States last
imposed import tariffs. At that time, China exported around 40m passenger car tires to the
US each year, and that fell to a minimum of 22m in 2011. The tariffs expired in September
2012 and Chinese exports jumped, reaching just over 50m units in 2014. The first half of
2015 has shown a decline of more than 50% in that figure.
Figure 1 China exports of passenger car tires to US
The US published final rates for the tariffs in June 2015 and this raised the barriers still
further, with higher tariffs than preliminary estimates had suggested. Some Chinese
companies have been hit with duties over 100%. As a result, most observers expect the
total number for 2015 to be of the order of 20m or less.