When Michelin managing partner Florent Menegaux spoke of an “invasion” of tyre imports in Europe from low production cost markets in a plea to the continent’s legislatures for assistance in “levelling the playing-field” (see the Editorial and Company section in this issue for more details), his words may have seemed hyperbolic and emotive. After all, many of the exporters he referred to – largely in Asia and, as we shall see, most prevalently in China – have a total turnover beneath the world’s largest tyre manufacturer’s famously large billion-euro research and development budget. Yet examining the latest available import figures from leading tyre industry analyst, Astutus Research, it is clear that the last three years have seen an increase in imports, with a jump in the first 11 months (available at time of writing) of 2024 that is worth closer examination.