Call for anti-dumping duty on China tyres as our FY16 imports rose 64%

India’s import of truck and bus radial tyre jumped by 64 per cent in 2015-16 to 12.8 lakh units from from 7.8 lakh units in the previous fiscal, with increased “dumping” from China, industry body Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) said on Wednesday.

Citing customs data, the domestic tyre manufacturers’ body said in the last two years, truck and bus radial tyre (TBR) import has gone up by 2.5 times. It called for anti-dumping measures on import from China as it accounted for a major chunk.

“From an average per month import of about 40,000 units in FY14 and 65,000 units in FY15, the TBR import figure has crossed one lakh units per month in FY16,” ATMA said in a statement.

Most of the import of TBR in India is from China, whose share has more than doubled to 90 per cent in 2015-16 from 40 per cent in 2013-14, it added.

“Chinese TBR import has come to account for 30-40 per cent of replacement demand for TBR in India,” the statement said. According to ATMA, “most of the TBR import from China is being dumped into India as TBR export prices from China are significantly lower than the prices of such tyres in Chinese market and also prices of similar exports originating from countries such as Thailand and South Korea”. The per unit import price from China in many cases is less than the cost of raw materials in India, it added.

Commenting on the development, ATMA Chairman K M Mammen said: “Government needs to take urgent measures to halt such sharp surge in imports and dumping of tyres.

“Tyre manufacturers in India have made major investments towards greenfield and brownfield projects for manufacturing of state of the art radial tyres but indiscriminate import and dumping of cheap tyres from China are queering the pitch for domestic manufacturing.” Domestic tyre industry has put in approximately Rs 35,000 crore in capacity expansion in the last few years by way of greenfield and brownfield projects. Unfortunately, as the new radial capacities have just gone on stream, cheap imports are surging, ATMA said.

“Indian tyre industry’s position is further vulnerable with US imposing severe dumping and anti-subsidy duties against Chinese imports to the USA,” Mammen said.

Slowdown of the domestic Chinese economy and demand for automobiles and tyres is feared to cause further dumping of tyres in India since India offers a ready and growing market with very low import duties in products such as tyres, he said.