The Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau (TRIB) says it supports the investigations of imported low cost Chinese tires to the U.S.
While the investigations don't technically include retreaded tires or the retread industry, TRIB says it is working to educate the International Trade Commission (ITC) "on the negative impacts these imports are having on the retread industry and its thousands of workers in the U.S." TRIB also is "highlighting the negative environmental impacts the continued growth of low-quality imported tires will have in the U.S."
TRIB says the low-quality truck and bus tires that are imported from China are priced below the cost of raw materials, and thus affecting the retreading industry, which TRIB says generally provides savings of 30-60% of the cost of a new commercial truck tire.
David Stevens, managing director of TRIB says, "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.
"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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. can continue to compete for decades to come without being unfairly disadvantaged by foreign dumping activities.”
For more information about TRIB, visit www.retread.org or call 1-703-533-7677.
