TRIB supports efforts by ITC and DOC to investigate Chinese truck and bus tire imports

The Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau (TRIB) is meeting the needs of its members by supporting the International Trade Commission (ITC) and Department of Commerce (DOC) investigations into the imports of low cost Chinese imported tires and the detrimental impact they are having on the US tire industry. While the scope of their initial investigation is comparing the impacts of new imported tires on new domestically-produced tires, TRIB is working with the ITC to educate the Commission on the negative impacts these imports are having on the retread industry and its thousands of workers in the US, as well as highlighting the negative environmental impacts the continued growth of low-quality imported tires will have in the US.

New low-quality imported Chinese truck and bus tires that are priced below the cost of raw materials are impacting our retread industry that generally provides savings from 30-60% of the cost of a new commercial truck tire. Quality commercial truck and bus tires have been treated as assets by commercial fleets that could then retread these tires multiple times saving significant money and delivering significant savings in raw materials such as oil, rubber, steel, and other materials. The retreading process also delivers significant reductions in carbon emissions compared to the manufacturing process for a new tire.

"Many of these low-cost imports are of too low a quality to successfully be retreaded. So, instead of creating an asset that could be reused successfully multiple times by fleets, these Chinese manufacturers of low-quality tires are creating disposable products that are discarded after one use and will contribute to growing numbers of disease-breeding tire piles in our landfills,” commented TRIB’s Managing Director, David Stevens. "While the cost of these low-quality imported tires may seem cheaper in the short-term, they will have long-term detrimental impacts to the retread and commercial truck and bus industries. They will create fewer quality casings that can be retreaded successfully, drive up total cost of ownership and cost per mile of tires for commercial fleets, put thousands of US jobs at risk, and have damaging impacts on the global environment."  
 
“The retread industry has been competing successfully on a level-playing field in the US for decades and has driven untold cost and environmental savings for their customers in both the public and private sectors. We are committed to ensuring the retread industry in the US can continue to compete for decades to come without being unfairly disadvantaged by foreign dumping activities.”

TRIB will continue to work with its member organizations and affiliated groups to help educate the ITC and the DOC on the massive positive economic and environmental benefits of the retread industry in the US.