Commerce Ministry urged to curb ‘indiscriminate’ import of radial tyres

The tyre industry has urged the Commerce Ministry to take urgent measures to curb what it termed as ‘indiscriminate’ import of radial tyres particularly from China.

According to Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), import of truck and bus radial (TBR) tyres are up 91 per cent in the first half of current fiscal in comparison to the year-ago period. TBR tyres are the mainstay of tyre industry in India accounting for 55 per cent of the industry in volume and value terms.

From an import of less than 40,000 units per month in FY 2013-14, the import of truck and bus radial tyres went up to 57,000 units in FY 2014-15. In the first six months of current financial year (April-September), the import has gone further up to 1,10,000 units which account for significant 30 per cent of replacement sales.

Most of the new capacities put up by the tyre industry in India are for new generation radial tyres, especially truck and bus radials. However, continued surge in import of cheaper radial tyres has led to underutilisation of new capacities, Raghupati Singhania, Chairman, ATMA, said.

According to ATMA, cheap imports over the last couple of years comprise largely of radial tyres only. Such sharp increase in import of tyres is not good for Indian manufacturing, more so, when the domestic tyre industry has put in approximately ₹25,000 crore in capacity expansion in the last few years.

It is learnt that some of the unutilised capacities in China, in the wake of US imposing anti-dumping duties, have been diverted to countries such as India leading to higher imports. India offers a ready and growing market with very low import duties in products such as tyres, ATMA said.

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