South Africa launches probe into dumping of Chinese tires

Pretoria – The South African International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) has launched a dumping investigation into passenger car and truck & bus tires imported from China.

The probe will examine the potential dumping of Chinese tires in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) market, which includes South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.

According to a 31 Jan notice from the South African Government Gazette, the ITAC launched the investigation upon a petition by the South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference.

The industry group, it stated, provided "sufficient evidence" that the imports were causing material injury in the domestic market.

“A prima facie case [was] established to enable ITAC to arrive at a reasonable conclusion that an investigation should be initiated on the basis of dumping, material injury, threat of material injury and causality.” 

The petition, ITAC went on to say, provided information indicating that exporters in China have ‘the disposable capacity to significantly increase the allegedly dumped imports into the SACU market’.

This, it said, “indicates the likelihood of substantially increased importation and the subjects entering the SACU market at prices that will have a depressing or suppressing effect on SACU prices.”

The period of investigation to determine the dumping margin is from 1 Aug 2020 to 31 July 2021.

The investigation to determine material injury will focus on 1 Aug 2018 to 31 July 2021.