New Delhi, July 5 (KNN) Capacity utilisation of the industry has dropped from 85% to 60% as tyre imports continue to rise, forcing the domestic industry to operate at 60 per cent plant utilisation, said Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association (ATMA).

The imports have also hit the jobs in the associated sector impacting 6000-7000 jobs immediately.

Talking to KNN, the Director General of ATMA, Rajiv Budhiraja said that whatever the incremental growth that is there from the replacement market is all going to Chinese because their import volumes have increased so significantly. 

Calculating the import volume years back, he said, “Three years back it was 40,000 per month, and then there was increase up to 65000. Then in 2015-16, it increased to 19,10,000, and now it is 1,50,000 only. So 40000 to 150000 which is two and half time increase is per month volume and this is accounting for the 40 per cent of the domestic replacement market. It means that if 10 tyres are getting sold or 10 tyres are being fitted on truck, four of those are Chinese tyres. That is the seriousness of the problem.”

ATMA has already petitioned the central government for anti-dumping duty on import of cheaper Chinese radial tyres. It pointed that an Indian radial tyre is priced at Rs 18,000-19,000, the Chinese variety is Rs 13,000-14,000.

“The domestic market would feel the pressure both on the volume front and the price front,” he added.

However, he said that there is no possibility of closing down of firms as fortunately they are large in size and scale. Drop in capacity utilisation in itself a signal of reduced activity and competitiveness in this sector.

Budhiraja said “We have sought government’s help also and legally also through imposition of anti-dumping duty but will take time so we are constantly requesting government to look into this matter. We asked them to fasten the process otherwise the volumes will multiply.”

“The Government assured to take steps and appreciate the concern of the industry,” he added. (KNN/ AR)