Major auto manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ei­cher Trucks and Buses

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and Tata Motors are aggressively lobbying the central government to reverse the me­asures taken last mo­nth, to impose anti dumping duty on imports of tyres from China.

“The domestic tyre ma­nufacturers are displaying a dog in the manger attitude. Neither are they supplying enough to meet our requirements at the agreed prices nor are they allowing us to import to meet end customer demand,” said a top official at Mahindra & Mahindra. Tyre manufacturers want prices to be hiked by 40-50 per cent over last year’s prices.

“A hike of around 5-8 per cent on last year’s contract prices can be absorbed by the industry but the kind of hike that tyre makers want cannot. That’s the reason why much of the industry has been forced to follow Tata Motors example of importing tyres from overseas to meet the supply gap,” the M&M official added.

But thanks to aggressive lobbying by leading Indian tyre manufacturers, the government imposed anti dumping duty between $24.97-$99.05 per set of bus and truck radial tyres (including tubeless) from China and Thailand. Alre­ady leading companies su­ch as Tata Motors, which imports a third of its total tyre requirement, were fo­rced to resort to a 10 per cent output cut in January due to a supply shortage.

“Currently, the tyre industry in India does not have sufficient capacity to meet the radial tyre requirements, so anti-dumping duty on import of radial tyres is detrimental to industry’s interests. We stro­ngly oppose this move,” said Vinod Aggarwal, president, Eicher Tr­ucks and Buses.

The auto OEMs have decided to get the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers to lobby with the government.

“Actually, the tyre manufacturers are not capable to supply according to dema­nds,” said Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager, Maruti Suzuki India.

However, according to Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association, Indian tyre industry has been actively engaged for past few years in putting in place associated training and services required for customers to harness the radial benefit.

As a result the radialisation rate in CVs in India has moved from the five per cent level in 2005 to around 12 per cent now. “Tyre-making and radial technology is highly capital intensive and to ensure we meet the growing demands, the industry is investing as much as Rs 9,000 crore for fresh capacity and technology,” said Neeraj Kanwar, Chairman, ATMA.

According to SIAM, radial tyre requirement projections by CV makers in 2010-11, is 28.27 lakh units, which is much more than that of ATMA’s projections at 26.20 lakh units for the same year.

Newer vehicle platforms such as the World Truck from Tata Motors, new Volvo trucks and Actros range from Mercedes Benz, all have a layout and construction, suited to radial tyres. Medium and heavy commercial vehicles sales were up threefold on a year on year basis to 25,998 units in Jan 2010.