Tire firms searching for fresh pastures

SHANGHAI: Small and medium-sized tiremakers in China are now shifting their marketing focus to other countries to alleviate the losses due to the punitive tariffs imposed by the US on Chinese-made tires in September.

"From September, our tire exports to the US shrank nearly 40 percent due to the punitive tariffs," Jiang Wenchang, sales manager of Beijing-based China National Tire & Rubber Corp, told China Daily at the 3rd Asian Essen Tire Show, which opened yesterday in Shanghai.

"We are altering our marketing priority to European countries now, as they have a similar product standard as that of the US," he said.