The domestic tyre industry, which is facing charges of cartelisation, may soon receive a fresh dose of competition from Chinese imports, this time from the government’s very own Minerals and Metal Trading Corporation (MMTC). To take advantage of the growing demand for commercial vehicle (CV) tyres, the state-run corporation has already collected price-related information on truck and bus radials from Chinese exporters and tyre companies. While MMTC chief Sanjiv Batra said the company did not have any such plans “at present”, sources in the corporation told The Indian Express that it was studying the market and a decision would be taken in four to six weeks.

An MMTC official who did not wish to be named said, the company is also in talks with various state transport undertakings (STUs) and transporters to assess the marketability of these tyres. “Further, we are also targeting PSUs such as Coal India Ltd (CIL) which require off-the-road radials for mining operations. These are not produced in the country now,” he informed.

Initially, MMTC may opt for importing 50,000 tyres a month from China, which will later be doubled to 100,000, giving that country’s firms an almost 50 per cent market share in the tyre import market. At present, 1.4 lakh tyres are imported a month largely by about 30-35 small individual importers.

Minerals and Metal Trading Corporation’s imports will largely target the replacement market that, at 7 lakh a month, accounts for 65 per cent of the overall CV tyre market, the official said. Tyre imports have significantly impacted this segment, with volumes shooting up from a mere 10,000 a month in 2004 to 1.4 lakh now.

... contd.