The Indonesian tire industry will miss out on an export target of US$40 million of bicycle and motorcycle tires to Turkey this year after the Turkish government imposed punitive tariffs on Indonesian tires.

The Turkish government has imposed extra punitive tariffs of between 5 and 10 percent on bicycle tires and between 20 and 32 percent on motorcycle tires imported from Indonesia since Aug. 1 — designed to counter alleged dumping practices by Indonesian tire exporters.

“The Turkish government’s decision on dumping will affect our export target that we earlier estimated would double from last year’s exports of $20 million,” Indonesian Tire Association (APBI) chairman Aziz Pane said last week.

Dumping is said to occur when a country’s manufacturers export products to another country at prices below those charged in the home  market or below their production cost, while anti-dumping measures are designed to counter alleged dumping practices by imposing additional import duties.

Aziz said Indonesia’s bicycle and motorcycle tire export sales were about 370,000 units per year, with the biggest slice exported to Asian countries, while domestic sales stood at 23 million units annually.
“We are disappointed with the [Indonesian] government.”

“We still exported [bicycle and motorcycle tires to Turkey] in July with the usual import duties and suddenly there have been increases in import duties related to [alleged] dumping since Aug. 1 and the Indonesian government did not inform us immediately about this.”

Commenting on the dumping allegation, Aziz said no Indonesian tire producers sold their products in the Turkish market at dumping prices as alleged, and  that they “feel shocked” over the decision.
The Turkish Anti-dumping Authority sent a dumping allegation over Indonesian inner tube and tires to Indonesia on March 20. Malaysia also received a similar communication  from the Turkish government.

The four Indonesian tire producers accused of dumping their products in Turkey are PT Industri  Karet Deli, PT Hung A Indonesia, PT Surabaya Kencana Tyre Industry and PT IRC INOAC Indonesia.