The tread patterns on tires trace the trajectories of global trade flows and technological competition.

In the early hours, inside the Jingshi Tunnel of the G5 Beijing-Kunming Expressway, a detached truck tire rolled towards the side of the tunnel in the darkness, followed by a slow-moving truck—this harrowing scene was captured by surveillance cameras. Fortunately, no major accident occurred due to the low speed-4.

Similarly, in Jiangxi, a green six-axle semi-trailer truck's tire suddenly smoked and caught fire while driving. Staff rushed towards the burning vehicle with fire extinguishers within two minutes, quickly controlling the blaze.

On the industrial front, the Eurasian Economic Union issued an announcement on November 14, 2025, initiating a second sunset review investigation into anti-dumping duties on heavy-duty tires originating from China-10.

Market Landscape: Shift in U.S. Import Structure, Rise of Thai Manufacturing

Latest data shows that the U.S. imported a cumulative 193.95 million tires in the first eight months of 2025, an increase of 7.7% year-on-year-1.

Among these, the market structure showed significant changes: imports of truck and bus tires increased by 11% to 42.53 million units, far exceeding the 4.7% growth rate for passenger car tires-1.

U.S. imports of tires from China showed a declining trend, with a cumulative 15.65 million units in the first eight months, a year-on-year decrease of 10%-1.

Imports of truck and bus tires fell by 14% to 950,000 units, indicating challenges for Chinese tire products in the North American market-1.

In stark contrast, U.S. imports of tires from Thailand reached a cumulative 49.81 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15%-1.

Imports of Thai-made truck and bus tires reached 11.11 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%, already surpassing the number of truck and bus tires exported from China to the U.S.-1.

Trade Barriers: Eurasian Economic Union Initiates Anti-dumping Review

On November 14, 2025, the Internal Market Protection Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission released Announcement No. 2025/458/AD18R4, initiating a second sunset review investigation of anti-dumping duties on heavy-duty tires originating from China-10.

The products involved are new pneumatic rubber tires for trucks, buses, semi-trailers, etc., with rim diameters between 17.5 and 24.5 inches-10.

This investigation is a continuation of the long-term trade remedy measures against Chinese heavy-duty tires by the Eurasian Economic Union.

On September 1, 2014, the Eurasian Economic Commission first initiated an anti-dumping investigation on heavy-duty tires originating from China-10.

Starting December 18, 2015, the Eurasian Economic Union began imposing anti-dumping duties of 14.79% to 35.35% on the involved products, with the measures originally set for a five-year term-10.

After the first sunset review, the Eurasian Economic Union extended the measure's validity period until June 28, 2026 on July 2, 2021-10.

On March 9, 2022, the Eurasian Economic Commission also initiated an anti-circumvention investigation on Chinese heavy-duty tires and made a final decision to impose anti-circumvention duties on February 1, 2023-10.

Chinese Exports: Zhangzhou Tire Exports Hit Record High

Amid the complex international trade environment, Chinese tire companies are seeking breakthroughs through market diversification and product innovation.

"Made in Zhangzhou" rubber tires are accelerating into overseas markets, with export trade performance standing out-6.

According to Zhangzhou Customs statistics, in the first three quarters of 2025, Zhangzhou exported rubber tires worth 120 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.4%, setting a new record for the same period in history-6.

Inflatable rubber tires were the main export product, with exports totaling 110 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.8%, accounting for 94.2% of Zhangzhou's rubber tire export value during the same period-6.

The African market has become the main destination for Zhangzhou tire exports-6.

In the first three quarters, Zhangzhou exported rubber tires worth 110 million yuan to African countries, a year-on-year increase of 33.2%, accounting for over 90% of Zhangzhou's rubber tire export value during the same period-6.

Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon ranked the top three, with export values of 54.56 million yuan, 28.08 million yuan, and 15.26 million yuan, respectively, increasing by 34.9%, 16.9%, and 67.6% year-on-year-6.

Chen Jian, customs manager of Zhengxin (Zhangzhou) Rubber Industry Co., Ltd., stated: "In the past two years, we have focused heavily on investment and innovation in R&D, particularly on personalized product development and manufacturing for the African market, creating highly adaptable tires combined with local complex road conditions to firmly secure orders from the African market."

Industry Cooperation: JD Auto and Giti Tire Strategic Upgrade

Facing market changes, tire companies and channel distributors are strengthening cooperation to jointly explore the market.

On November 18, 2025, JD Auto and Giti Tire announced a strategic cooperation upgrade, this cooperation comprehensively covering both passenger car tires and commercial vehicle tires core business segments-7.

Both parties plan to fully leverage their respective resource advantages, conduct in-depth resource integration and complementary advantages, and are committed to advancing tire products and the entire service chain towards digitalization, efficiency, and low-carbon direction-7.

JD Auto, as a leading domestic one-stop automotive consumption platform, possesses a powerful super supply chain system and online-to-offline full-channel integrated layout-7.

Its JD Car Maintenance has successfully built a standardized service ecosystem covering more than 3,000 stores nationwide-7.

Giti Tire, deeply engaged in the tire industry for over 70 years, possesses industry-leading strength in product research and development, intelligent manufacturing, and market coverage-7.

In commercial vehicle tires and logistics transportation scenarios, the two parties will jointly launch integrated solutions combining intelligent products, professional services, and digital management, assisting the transportation industry in achieving cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and green transformation goals-7.

JD Car Maintenance will play a key role in this cooperation, exploring an innovative model of "instant retail + fast distribution service" with Giti Tire, focusing on optimizing fulfillment links such as "hourly delivery" and "city fast distribution"-7.

Technological Innovation: Sustainable Materials and Electric-specific Tires Become Trends

Technological innovation in the tire industry mainly focuses on two major areas: sustainable materials and electric-specific tires.

Michelin has continued to make breakthroughs in the application of sustainable materials. At the 7th China International Import Expo, it showcased its new tire making its Asian debut—a product with a sustainable material content of 71%-3.

This innovation is an important milestone on Michelin's sustainability roadmap-3.

From 46% in 2021, to 53% in 2022, to 63% in 2023, and now 71%, Michelin has demonstrated new products with continuously increasing proportions of sustainable materials at each CIIE-3.

Michelin has proposed that by 2050, 100% of its tire products will be made from bio-based, renewable, and recyclable materials-3.

Meanwhile, the rapid development of electric commercial vehicles has presented new requirements for tire performance.

Electric commercial vehicles, due to the instantaneous high torque output of the motor and the approximately 25% increase in battery load, frequently cause traditional tires to fall into a new "three highs" dilemma: "high wear, high failure, and high irregular wear"-8.

Data shared by Zhang Chunsheng, Director of the All-Steel Technology Research Institute of Zhongce Rubber Group, shows that the abnormal wear rate for electric commercial vehicle tires reaches 30%, wear resistance decreases by 30%, and bead failure incidence is as high as 50%-8.

To address this challenge, Zhongce Rubber globally launched the groundbreaking "X Technology System" and dedicated tires for electric commercial vehicles-8.

This technology system comprises three core technologies: X Carbon Extreme Technology, X-Xuanjia Technology, and X-Art Technology-8.

Among them, X Carbon Extreme Technology, as a globally pioneering reinforced composite material, increases tire wear resistance by 50%, reduces river pattern wear by 80%, decreases bead failure rate by 50%, and reduces shoulder wear by 60%-8.

Safety Warning: Tire Detachment Incident Raises Safety Concerns

On the evening of March 19, 2025, inside the Jingshi Tunnel on the Taishi direction of the G5 Beijing-Kunming Expressway, surveillance footage showed a tire suddenly rolling into the camera's view, followed by a truck-4.

It turned out that a Shandong-licensed heavy semi-trailer truck traveling to this point had its left front tire suddenly detach, leaving it unable to move-4.

The Expressway Sixth Brigade Fourth Team police rushed to the scene upon receiving the alert-4.

The police investigation revealed that the driver, Huang, was engaged in logistics transportation between Shanxi and Hebei provinces, making round trips on average every two days-4.

Because the vehicle traveled long distances, for extended periods, with high frequency of use, and carried heavy loads, and because Huang did not perform routine vehicle checks before departure and during travel-4.

Before the incident, Huang had noticed vehicle shaking but thought to persist until reaching the Hedi toll station for handling. As a result, at 23:07, when passing through the Jingshi Tunnel, the tire detachment incident occurred-4.

Fortunately, the vehicle was moving at low speed and did not roll over, and no injuries were reported-4.

According to the "Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China", if tire detachment causes personal injury, vehicle damage, or other property loss, it constitutes a traffic accident-4.

In this case, since the tire detachment caused vehicle damage, it constituted a traffic accident-4.

From the detached tire on the Beijing-Kunming Expressway to the anti-dumping announcement by the Eurasian Economic Union, and further to the record-high tire export data from Zhangzhou, the truck tire industry is accelerating transformation under the multiple influences of safety challenges, technological innovation, and trade barriers.

As Michelin increases the proportion of sustainable materials in tires to 71%, and as Zhongce Rubber launches dedicated tire systems for electric commercial vehicles, tires have evolved from ordinary components into key factors affecting fleet safety, operational efficiency, and environmental sustainability.