[Incorrigible]

I had always heard that importing low end tires was uneconomic since they take up so much room and didn't provide a significant margin.  Guess I heard wrong.

[Incorrigible]

Willie Green, wherever you are, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

[Hydroshock]

Free traitors strike the middle class again.

[Publius6961]

This report is hard to believe.
I would no more put Chinese-manufactured tires on any of my cars than drive constantly over broken glass.

We're not talking inconvenience here, and saving $10 a tire.

This is literally a matter of life or death, and I do not know a single person I deal with who feels differently.

[Publius6961]

Passenger tire production in the United States has fallen from 223 million tires in 2000 to 176 million in 2005, a drop of 21 percent, Ludwig said. The union is facing another round of plant shutdowns, due partly to the rising imports and a sluggish tire market.

Companies want to cut costs, while the union seeks to preserve wages and benefits, and prevent further erosion of production and jobs.

I reversed the order of these two statements to illustrate the connection between them.

Unions have not yet caught on that non-skilled jobs can no longer set the value of their own work. Those days are gone forever as are, increasingly, unions.
Work for what your labor is worth, look for another job or, horrors, educate yourself and upgrade your skills!

[jiggyboy]

I've seen how they make their electronics. NFW am I buying tires from China.

[pissant]

Simple solution. Buy US made tires. I have three vehicles, all have US made tires. Always will.

[IamConservative]

Rapidly rising imports of tires, especially from China, are increasing pressure on American tire makers to close more plants and cut domestic production.

Seems like defeatist thinking. Maybe that should look for ways to cut costs so our domestic product isn't priced such that China can send a tire half way around the world for less than we can make one in a unionized plant.

One thing that is having an impact here is the rapid increase in new tire sizes. I recently put 20" rims on my pickup and the width and profile I needed narrowed my choices down to GoodYear, Falken and Nitto. The latter are Japanese companies I believe. I went with the Falken and have been pleased. They were $25 less for each tire. I didn't base my decision entirely on that, but it certainly influenced it.

[B Knotts]

I have a German car, but keep going back to U.S.-made Goodyear tires. I just like them better.

[oceanview]

another industry and its jobs lost to free trade.

[pageonetoo]

I had always heard that importing low end tires was uneconomic since they take up so much room and didn't provide a significant margin. Guess I heard wrong.

If you visit most garden centers, you will be able to purchase bags of ROCKS to make your place look purty> chances are the label will show them to be a product of China.

[DoughtyOne]

At some point it would seem to me, that we could begin to grasp the idea that some products should not be farmed out. I guess it couldn't cause us any harm if our tire manufacturing all moved to China. I mean, if relations soured between China and the U.S. it wouldn't take ten minutes before we'd have a fully functioning tire manufacturing industry in place again.

And during that ten minutes, we could just wait for placement tires...

The lights are on. I just don't think anybody is home...

[Question_Assumptions]

If the Chinese would float their currency against the dollar, at least some of this problem would go away. Of course it would make it easier for them to afford oil (sold in dollars) so that could create some problems, too.

[looscnnn]

I have a question, regardless of whether or not it is good for the economy what about self-sufficency? We talk about people being self-sufficient, how about our country?

When China finally feels ready to wage war (yes I said when not if), we will not be able to produce enough to defend ourselves if we let this keep happening and China will have all "our" plants over there producing materials for them.

By the continued move overseas we are just making ourselves a weaker country, while China makes itself stronger. Don't believe me, just look back at history. I think it time to stop looking at it as an economic issue and more as a national security issue.

[MikeD]

Let me preface my remarks by saying my dad just hit 35 years at a former Kelly-Springfield plant, and Goodyear paid for my undergraduate education (directly and indirectly).

First off, unions are killing the tire business. There was a strike in 1997. Instead of ~3500 daily workers, my dad's plant dropped to ~500 non-union and salary workers. By the end of the strike, the plant was at 20% normal productivity, and was curing rubber at 100% of the normal rate.

Another factor is the cost of oil. Petroleum products make up 75% of a tire. If the price of oil doubles, the cost of raw materials will nearly double.

Finally, the plants are getting old. In some cases, the companies are expending the capital equipment to upgrade facilities, but in other cases they've decided it's just not worth the hassle.

[HamiltonJay]

Go to a replacement tire shop these days and try to pronounce the name brand of most of the stuff on the wall....

[Old_Mil]

With tire factory wages in the United States around $22 an hour, versus 73 cents an hour in China, KeyBanc Capital Markets' Ludwig does not see much chance that the rapid growth of tire imports from China will end soon.

A perfect illustration of why no American worker - no matter how educated - can compete with his Chinese counterpart. $0.73 an hour equates to a mere $1,518.04 a year.

[capitalist229]

Our standard of living depends on low cost consumer products, including cheap credit with which to buy it all.

China is not a threat because increasing productivity benefits everybody, it is NOT a zero sum game as some here propound.

BUMP