INDIA – The country’s recent decision to increase duty on imported Chinese and Thai truck tyres, adding up to $40 per casing, has disturbed many of the local truck manufacturers who say it will result in a slowdown in orders. The measures are now beginning to bite because there are often insufficient truck and bus tyres available which are produced locally.
As we have illustrated previously companies like Michelin have moved production to accommodate the problem but such major shifts take time and the requirements are very much current. As a contrast native tyre producers are delighted by the Government action which has also affected local steel manufacturing which is not subject to the new levy of over $2000 a tonne.
As we have often stated in hard times the spectre of protectionism looms but the tyre producers of the subcontinent are adamant that in this case at least, action was justified as they state categorically that the price of the imports cannot cover the cost of manufacture, no matter where the goods emanate.
