Imports

Next Article

Commercial

Made in China. And Indonesia.

And Taiwan... Consumer tire imports are up 15.5%

Chinese consumer tire imports were down 27.6% last turned to countries such as South Korea and Indonesia (see year compared to 2009. Passenger tire imports were Chart 4). Th e result? Overall consumer tire imports to the hit particularly hard, dropping from 38 million units U.S. were up 15.5% in 2010 vs. 2009. Still, China remained to 27.4 million units (see Chart 3). the number one importer.

It’s easy to pinpoint the reason for the dramatic decreases. “Tire production in the U.S. increased 15%, or about 25 mil

A series of tariff s, which went into eff ect on Sept. 26, 2009, lion tires, in 2010 vs. 2009, and employment increased slightly, are directly responsible. In the 15 months since they were but at a much lower rate than the increase in production,” says implemented, consumer tire demand in the United States Saul Ludwig, a managing director with Northcoast Research has outpaced domestic supply. Holdings LLC. “So the USW can certainly claim victory.

Aft er depleting their inventories in 2009, some domestic “However, because imports from countries other than China tire manufacturers have tried to catch up by returning to 24/7 increased even more than those from China decreased, there schedules. Th ey also increased plant capacity by 1%. were other infl uences that may bett er explain the increase in

It wasn’t enough. Because the tariff s — which dropped production. Inventories (in units) that had been chopped by from 39% to 34% on Sept. 26, 2010 — drastically reduced 30% in 2009 had to be rebuilt, and actual tire demand also

Chinese produced tires, tire manufacturers and marketers increased. In my opinion, those factors trumped the tariff s as the principal reason for the increase in production and Chart 3 employment.”

U.S. CONSUMER TIRE IMPORTS FROM CHINA Both the United Steelworkers union and the Alliance for (in millions) American Manufacturing (of which the USW is a member)

Year Units Yr./yr. change say domestic tire production is up and jobs have been created because of the tariff s. Th e Tire Industry Association believes 20 10 31.1 -27.6% there is no reliable data to support the claim that the tariff 2009 43.0 -7.5% has protected tire manufacturing jobs. 2008 46.5 +14.8% Either way, the production of low-cost radial consumer tires in the U.S. has not increased, and may never return. In addition, 2007 40.5 +50.0% consumer shipment numbers from China are not anywhere 2006 27.0 +28.0% near as low as predicted. Th e International Trade Commission Source: U.S. government, MTD fi gures estimated the tariff s would decrease shipments anywhere from 38.2% to 58.4%. Many opponents of the tariff legislation claimed shipments would drop to almost nothing. ■

Chart 4 U.S. CONSUMER TIRE IMPORTS BY COUNTRY

2010 Rank/ % change vs. country 2009 rank 2009

1. China 1 -27.6% Chart 5 U.S. TRUCK TIRE IMPORTS FROM CHINA

2. S. Korea 4 3. Canada 2 4. Japan 3 5. Indonesia 5 6. Thailand 8 7. Mexico 6 8. Brazil 7 9. Taiwan 9 10. Germany 11 +81.0% +10.0% +34.0% +78.0% +77.5% +44.5% +9.6% +118.0% +17.0%

The top 10 countries account for 92% of all passenger tire imports in the U.S. 440,000 bias (11%)

3.56 million radial (89%) Source: U.S. government, MTD fi gures