Tire Industry Urges Government: "Korean Tires Should Be Used on Domestic Luxury Cars"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The tire industry is reportedly requesting policy support to allow the use of domestic tires on vehicles produced by domestic automakers.

According to the industry on the 5th, the Korea Tire Industry Association sent an official letter to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy at the end of last month, asking to "support providing opportunities to equip domestic tires on domestic mid-to-large luxury passenger cars at the time of delivery to enhance consumer welfare."

The association is said to have pointed out issues such as recently domestic luxury passenger cars adopting only foreign tires through the official letter.

Domestic tire sales amounted to 29.1 million units in 2019, and the share of foreign tires in domestic sales has been increasing annually from 8.2% in 2016 to 18.1% in 2019.

On the other hand, the proportion of domestic tires supplied to automakers for new car sales (OE) has been decreasing annually from 32.8% in 2017 to 23.6% based on January to October last year.

The association reportedly requested government support so that related domestic industries can cooperate and respond, as the domestic tire industry is facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and countries around the world are implementing policies to protect their domestic tires.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is also said to have recently sent official letters to Hyundai and Kia Motors reflecting this request.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.