Analyst: Questions over US tariffs on China 

Cologne, Germany – The recent imposition of tariffs on Chinese tire imports is likely to be of only limited benefit to the US tire manufacturing sector, a senior research economist at market intelligence provider LMC International believes.

Chinese tire makers expanded capacity to meet both domestic and global demand and their aggressive increase in exports in 2013-14 prompted the US countervailing duty measures.

Speaking at the Tire Technology Expo conference in Cologne on 10 Feb, LMC's Paul Settles said that the US tariffs might have “some scope to support” US tire production. However, he added, would US producers would still not have full protection from foreign imports.

“What is likely to happen, as it did in 2009-12 when the last tire tariffs were in force, is that the tires [that were] made in China will be replaced by tires from other low-cost producing countries,” he said.

The big question, explained Settles, is "how many of the remaining Chinese tires will be replaced by competition from US producers and imports from other low-cost producing countries?"

Another key question, he said was "how many will still be shipped to the US to be sold for a higher price than before the tariffs?"

On the possibility of Chinese-made tires finding their way to Europe in light of the US tariff, Settles said: “They already have. Their industry is very dynamic and agile and can adapt to new developments fairly quickly, such as the EU tire label,” added Settles.

The European market, though, is better protected from Chinese competition than is the US market, according to Settles. This, he said, was because of the high proportion of winter and high/ultra-high performance tires sold in the region.