European Aluminium Wheel Market 2006 – 2009

When the European Commission published the preliminary results of its anti-dumping investigation of Chinese aluminium wheel producers, it also released a wealth of market information to anyone willing to trawl through numerous pages of legal jargon. The good news is that Tyres & Accessories has done this, so you don’t have to. And the results reveal the sheer scale of the case.

Volume and market share of aluminium wheel imports

The evolution of aluminium wheel imports into the European Union from China, in volume and market share from 2006 to 2008, compared with the investigation period or IP – July 2008 to June 2009:

The Official Journal of the European Union notes that two calculations of consumption were compared in the process of compiling these figures and that they produced similar results: “As most production is ‘on order’, stocks do not play a major role in terms of volumes as compared to total consumption. In the first calculation EU production was added to imports and exports were deducted. In the second calculation imports and EU sales (data from sampled producers, mini questionnaires, and assumption for the rest of producers) were summed up. The second option was preferred as it allows a higher level of precision in this case.”

Nevertheless, the volume of Chinese imports increased from 3.7 million units in 2006, to 5.1 million units in 2007, 5.8 million units in 2008 and to 6.1 million units in the IP. It thus increased more than 66 per cent between 2006 and the IP. During the same period the market share of Chinese imports doubled, increasing from 6.3 per cent in 2006, to 8.2 per cent in 2007, to 10 per cent in 2008 and 12.4 per cent in the IP. Overall, the Chinese imports gained 6.1 percentage points of market share over the period considered.

Total European Union market size

The report found that consumption decreased by 15.5 per cent over the period considered, with a major decrease of 15.1 per cent between 2008 and the IP. It increased from 58.6 million units in 2006, to 62.4 million units in 2007 and then dropped to 58.3 million units in 2008 and to 49.5 million units in the IP.

The total European Union consumption, the combined OE and aftermarket size, was established by adding imports based on Eurostat data to the EU sales from Union producers. As imports were reported in weight, the conversion into units was also made based on a methodology suggested by the complainants (EUW) using an average weight per unit. According to the report, this was then cross-checked and confirmed with data supplied by the sampled Chinese exporters. EU deliveries were calculated by adding those made by the sampled Union producers with those made by the other producers (data collected at the pre-initiation stage, obtained from the complaint, certain estimates made on the basis of data of sampled producers).

European producer’s wheel stocks

According to the report, wheel stocks of the sampled companies remained below 12 per cent of the production, although the ruling points out that this indicator is “not very relevant” because wheel production “to a very large extent” is to order and therefore stocks are mostly the result of goods being sold but not yet delivered.

Related News:

• European Commission Imposes 20.6% Duty on Chinese Alloy Wheel Imports

• European ‘Anti-Dumping’ Investigation Could Mean 30% Duty on Chinese Alloys