Tire Exports Pivoting to ASEAN & Middle East

Against the backdrop of a complex and volatile global trade environment and escalating trade barriers imposed by Europe and the United States, China's tire industry has demonstrated strong resilience. Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in 2025, China's tire exports reached 680 million units, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%, achieving a breakthrough in both export volume and growth rate. The ASEAN and Middle Eastern markets have become the core engines driving this growth, injecting new momentum into the industry's development.

Anti-dumping investigations in the European and American markets are a key factor forcing Chinese tire companies to transform their strategies. For a long time, Europe and the United States have been the core consumer markets for global tires, but in recent years, their frequent anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations have significantly increased the export costs of Chinese tires.

The United States has imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese tires as high as 100.8%, and the European Union has also set up market access barriers through a series of trade remedy measures, leading to a gradual loss of price competitiveness for Chinese tires in the European and American markets.

Against this backdrop, domestic tire companies have proactively adjusted their market layout, turning their attention to emerging markets with more favorable trade environments and broader demand potential. The Middle East, Latin America, and Southeast Asia have become key expansion areas.

The ASEAN market, with its geographical advantages and policy dividends, has become an important growth pole for China's tire exports. As a major global producer of natural rubber, the ASEAN region boasts abundant rubber resources, providing low-cost raw materials for tire production. Furthermore, the implementation of the RCEP agreement has led to tariff reductions within the region, further lowering trade costs.

By 2025, Chinese tire companies' presence in ASEAN will exhibit characteristics of large-scale and intensive development, with Cambodia becoming a core node for capacity aggregation. Nine Chinese tire companies, including Sailun, General Motors, and Wanli, have established projects there, accounting for 38% of the total new overseas capacity added that year.

Wanli Tire's Cambodian base has set an industry record, completing the first tire production line in just 11 months from groundbreaking. The first batch of products was successfully sold to the Netherlands, demonstrating the overseas construction and supply capabilities of Chinese tire companies. Data shows that in the first 11 months of 2025, Cambodia's tire export revenue exceeded US$1.2 billion, with almost all of the increase contributed by Chinese companies, making Cambodia a crucial transit hub for Chinese tires reaching the global market.

Strong demand in the Middle East market provides significant support for Chinese tire exports. The region's vehicle ownership continues to grow, and infrastructure construction is booming, creating strong demand for truck and bus tires and engineering tires. Meanwhile, local consumers' preference for high-performance, cost-effective tires aligns perfectly with the positioning of Chinese brands.

To seize market opportunities, leading brands such as Linglong and Triangle are actively promoting localization, establishing overseas warehouses in core markets like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and building a localized service system integrating warehousing, distribution, and after-sales service, significantly shortening delivery cycles and improving customer response efficiency.

At the 2025 Dubai-Frankfurt Automotive Parts Exhibition, Chinese tire companies' booths attracted buyers from over 160 countries and regions, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Companies like Triangle Tire reached several agreements with regional strategic partners on product localization and long-term cooperation models, further consolidating their market share.

In October 2025, the UAE had already become one of the top export destinations for Chinese truck and bus tires, with exports increasing by 4.88% month-on-month, becoming a bright spot in the industry's growth.

This counter-trend growth in Chinese tire exports is not only due to precise adjustments in market layout but also inseparable from companies' continuous investment in technological innovation and capacity upgrades. Linglong Tire is implementing a "7+5" global production capacity layout strategy, building diversified production bases both domestically and internationally.

Companies like Guizhou Tire and Prinx Chengshan are enhancing their high-end product supply capabilities through overseas smart manufacturing projects, filling gaps in niche markets such as passenger car tires. Simultaneously, upstream suppliers are also following suit with overseas expansion. Companies like Shandong Daye Co., Ltd. are building production bases in Morocco, forming a globally integrated industrial chain system that coordinates upstream and downstream operations, providing a solid guarantee for export growth.