Wheel alignment in MOTs ‘would cut emissions, save UK motorists £4bn a year’ – SharkEye
Garage equipment company SharkEye Wheel Aligners UK has made the case for making wheel alignment part of the MOT test. The company argues that ensuring UK road vehicles are properly aligned would save motorists billions of pounds a year. Proper alignment helps to minimise rolling resistance, as well as ensuring that tyres wear evenly, increasing their longevity. The firm used the occasion of a visit from Jo White MP to its new service centre in Worksop, Nottinghamshire to put forward its argument. SharkEye’s message comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer outlines his UK’s ambitious ‘net zero’ targets at the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.
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US final ruling on Thai-produced truck tyre tariffs, ups rates for Bridgestone and Prinx
The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued a final ruling to impose anti-dumping duties of 12.33%-48.39% on truck and bus tyres imported from Thailand. Among them, Bridgestone Corporation, a company located in Thailand, was subject to a tax rate of 48.39 per cent. Prinx Chengshan (Thailand) needs to pay an anti-dumping duty of 12.33 per cent. Other manufacturers and exporters located in Thailand also need to pay a tax rate of 12.33 per cent.
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Investment key to ending skills crisis – Easy2Recruit
In the 2024 Budget, the UK government earmarked a £2 billion investment to assist the automotive sector’s transition to full electrification. Easy2Recruit, an agency helping garages hire overseas talent, said investment in overall training will need to increase if the skills crisis is to end. It called such an investment the key to sustainable growth. The chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the £2 billion investment as part of the government’s modern industry strategy in her first Budget.
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Aftermarket calls on Transport Secretary to support the independent workshop
A group of the aftermarket’s leading suppliers, repairers and trade bodies has co-signed a list of five key policy requests sent by LKQ UK & Ireland to the Secretary of State for Transport. Under the title, ‘Fighting for the Right to Repair’, LKQ UK & Ireland CEO Kevan Wooden set the scene by outlining the […]
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Enduring sustainability: Michelin shares whole life performance and electric vehicle tyre strategy
Driven by the company’s corporate belief that mobility is a human right and essential for flourishing and freedom, Michelin is committed to decarbonising mobility and – of course – tyres play a key role in that. During a recent visit to Michelin’s Clermont-Ferrand headquarters and Ladoux research and development facility in France, Michelin executives articulated how that grand vision relates to the tyres and vehicles of today as well as the technology of tomorrow.
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Red lamps, cybersecurity, labelling and the online tyre business headline 2024 NTDA conference
The themes of the 2024 Tyre Industry Conference were first outlined by NTDA chief executive Stefan Hay, who framed the current moment for the tyre trade as a time of flux. This period of change is characterised by opportunities to achieve strides forward in areas such as digitalisation, training, roadside safety and sustainability, but also significant threats to the sector, like cyberattacks and the difficulty in recruiting younger people to tyre industry roles. Hay said that the need for highly skilled workers has intensified, due to an ageing workforce, declining interest in engineering jobs, and increased demand for hybrid and remote working from the younger generation. Ultimately, it may be that progression in the evolution of the tyre industry may be realised by embracing perceived threats, Hay suggested.
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South Africa launches investigation into tyres from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam
Since September, the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) has launched an investigation into the circumvention of anti-dumping investigations by redirecting tyres from China to Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
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Tyre Recovery Association’s vibrant forum demonstrates necessary focus on UK sector
When DME Tyres’ Bill Clarke, the Tyre Recovery Association’s president, addressed the impressively large number of delegates from across the tyre sector at the 2024 Briefing Day (Tuesday 24 September, Leamington Spa), he was in no mood to mince his words. “I don’t think the UK recycling industry can survive in its current form…with one hand tied behind its back,” he said, summing up many years of frustration for the TRA and its members. With a new government slowly – too slowly, perhaps – setting out its legislative agenda, his dramatic rhetorical tone was understandable. With several issues coming to a head, led by an end-of-life tyre (ELT) export situation that is, in every sense, unsustainable, and evolving UK legislation governing waste carriers, brokers and dealers (CBD), the association and its forum speakers demonstrated an increased urgency about the tyre recovery situation.
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UN briefing calls for further tyre particulate research and legislation
On 24 August the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) published a foresight brief on the subject of “Vehicle Tyre particles in the environment”. Written by a panel of academics and researchers – namely Reto Gieré, University of Pennsylvania; Jaydee Edwards, University of Pennsylvania; Volker Dietrich, German Meteorological Service; Radek Stoček, Polymer Research Lab and Tomáš Bata University, Zlín; as well as Gert Heinrich, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany – the briefing basically called for more work on the part of road, automotive and tyre industry stakeholders and ultimately better policy-based controls from governments.
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Tyre News in Numbers September 2024
Tyres & Accessories’ monthly Tyres News in Numbers’ column boils down the latest tyre industry news to the most important statistics of the month. Below, we look at the big numbers from the September 2024 magazine. £110.11: The maximum import tariff per tyre on Chinese-produced truck and bus tyres recommended by the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA)...
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Shipping industry warned about tyre exports, TRA welcomes EA guidance
At the end of 2023, India’s Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) released a report which stated that India imported approximately 800,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres (ELT) between April and November 2023. The UK and EU member nations being the primary contributors. The UK was identified as one of the leading exporters of ELTs to India, supplying as much as 30 per cent of their import market. On 3 September, the EA clarified its position on the illegal export of ELTs to India for pyrolysis. Any waste export must be accompanied by a fully completed Annex VII. In response, the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) welcomed the EA’s statement of responsibilities and particularly the fact that it explicitly states that any waste export must be accompanied by a fully completed Annex VII.
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Hankook data played a key role in UK truck tyre tariff recommendation
The news that the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has decided to recommend import tariffs of up to £110.11 per tyre on imports of Chinese-produced truck and bus tyres to the secretary of state has attracted understandable interest. A couple of days after the initial recommendation was made, Tyres & Accessories has discovered further details both of the recommendations themselves and about how tariffs came to be recalculated.
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Chinese-produced bicycle tyres also being investigated
Four days earlier (on 23 August 2024), TRA initiated a transition review into anti-dumping measure on bicycles and certain bicycle parts from China. These bicycles are being imported from China and consigned from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia.
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TRA recommends duties of up to £110 on Chinese-produced truck tyres
The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has published its initial findings on two transition reviews into anti-dumping and countervailing measures on lorry and bus tyres imported from China. Based on evidence provided, the TRA has recommended that the new combined anti-dumping and countervailing duty rates range from £10.03 per tyre to £110.11 per tyre.
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Hankook’s Chongqing factory fined for environmental issues
Hankook’s factory in Chongqing, China, was fined 251,000 yuan (about £27,000; 32,000) by the Chinese Environmental Protection Department for not “storing hazardous waste” according to standards.
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