South Africa under siege from cheap Chinese tyres

We'll when you screw the local manufacturing sector with crazy employment requirements/BEE etc, tax burden, not to mention unions dancing around for double inflation increases etc, then yes, cheap imports are going to dominate.
Insert Cyril shocked face here.
Must BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE harder.
 
There is a difference between tyres made in China, and Chinese tyres:
Kumho Tire
History: Founded in South Korea in 1960.
Facilities: Operates three main manufacturing plants in South Korea, alongside facilities in China and Vietnam.
Range: Supplies original equipment to major international automakers and builds specialized aircraft tires.
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“In the last two or three years, we’ve had this complaint of unfair trade in the replacement market,” Chala said. “We are seeing more imported products being sold in the market.”

“They land in the country far cheaper than what it’s supposed to be, and generally the fitment centres would then have those particular products because they import them from China.”

Many motorists have raised concerns regarding the quality of tyres that are imported from China, saying they are made with cheaper materials and need to be replaced more frequently.
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So show us then. Go and sponsor an article on BottomAuto where you go and do an honest and fair test between good quality local brands and good quality Chinese brands and then look at the wear as well as safety/grip. Pay for the car rental, tyres and track only, and let an independent journalist do the work.

This is an older cars.co.za article, but it is the type of thing that would justify people paying a higher cost.
We started our test in the Continental-shod Ford Fiesta, which displayed sure-footed handling in a wet slalom and emergency braking test. Thanks to the tyre’s macro-block tread design, optimised shoulder flexibility and rigid sidewall, it handled the wet impressively with no fuss at all almost as if the track was dry. The same circuit in the budget-shod car provided some moments of going for the grab handles, the low-grade tyres were even squealing in the wet, a sign of their poor compound and construction. The wet slalom was like playing a game of Twister, only with tissue oil on your palms. We use the example of Twister because the amount of steering input required to complete the slalom felt like its own little micro-twister. Worse still, the Fiesta’s electronic driver aids were intervening throughout to try save the out-of-control situation. But this made little impression with such poor performance from the budget tyres.
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It’s a tough economic climate, when customers need to buy cheaper tyres for their car than originally fitted, and sure, that might be acceptable on an older or entry-level car. However what we experienced on track, putting budget tyres on a high-performance car like the BMW is dangerous. The drop in performance of the BMW on budget tyres was eye-opening, it’s simply not worth the saved rands.
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Smiggles said:
I have news for you it's not only tyres. Everything is cheap Chinese junk these days.
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The problem is that I don't think it is that anymore. There is intense competition within China, and they are iterating products rapidly to address problems.
 
konfab said:
The problem is that I don't think it is that anymore. There is intense competition within China, and they are iterating products rapidly to address problems.
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I think you get Chinese products and then you get Chinese products. And often coming out of the same factory.

If they want to do something properly, they can and will. But they also want to flood foreign markets with cheap, low quality stuff.
 
thestaggy said:
I think you get Chinese products and then you get Chinese products. And often coming out of the same factory.

If they want to do something properly, they can and will. But they also want to flood foreign markets with cheap, low quality stuff.
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Case in point: the EV from the Glorious People's Republic of China that I am on the verge of buying has these tyres;
1787660170994.png

Linglong comfort master.

Looking up a tyre review article. This was done in 2026
1787660233293.png
From the article:
Once again, Ling Long is rattling the premium manufacturers, finishing a close second but way cheaper than the Continental. We have seen in other tests that this low purchase price and good grip is balanced out with poor wear, so as a value proposition across the tyre life, it doesn't always meet expectations but it's certainly showing that the Chinese manufacturers are catching up.
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And honestly, on ZA roads, it makes little difference with wear IMO because they will destroy your premium tyres.

There are obviously chineseium products that are a problem, but confusing that with all products is a categorial mistake IMO.
 
You’ll get half the durability on those cheap tyres. It’s their trick to match performance.
A brand like Nankang is the happy medium.
 
konfab said:
The problem is that I don't think it is that anymore. There is intense competition within China, and they are iterating products rapidly to address problems.
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The reality is that China builds some very high-quality goods, people seem to forget that a large part of the Chinese manufacturing sector builds to order, so when a Western company orders cheap, that is what you get. In this country it doesn't matter whether you buy from China Mall or a hardware store, the chances are you are buying the exact same product manufactured at the same factory, you are just going to pay a lot more at the hardware store.
 
is there really that much of a difference?, I mean honestly if you sit in a car with premium tires and sit in a car with chinesium,
can you really tell the difference?

I mean its the same with many things these days made in China if somebody blindfolded you and said one is chinese and one isnt,
how can us fat, tall, westerners know?

everything from frying pans to shoes to gadgets is made in China, how can you tell anything these days?
 
konfab said:
So show us then. Go and sponsor an article on BottomAuto where you go and do an honest and fair test between good quality local brands and good quality Chinese brands and then look at the wear as well as safety/grip. Pay for the car rental, tyres and track only, and let an independent journalist do the work.

This is an older cars.co.za article, but it is the type of thing that would justify people paying a higher cost.
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I am surprised that Car Magazine didn't name the budget tyres.

www.carmag.co.za

Budget vs Premium Tyre test - CAR Magazine

We test the same cars, in the same conditions, on premium and budget tyres. The results may shock you.
www.carmag.co.za www.carmag.co.za

It reads like Continental marketing. To promote awareness, names need to be called.

Ignoring the word "budget", vehicles are designed, tuned, and calibrated around a tyre. In the industry these tyres are categorised, but I am sure that categorisation is leaning more to exclusiveness.

What would be appreciated is a shootout between Michelin, Continental, Dunlop, etc, including their sub-brands, and budget brands (well, Chinese in this context), which would include Maxtrek (that I have seen on many bakkies and SUVs) and whatever else is considered budget. Assuming that all is categorised.

I am not an expert on tyres; I go with the recommended options, and it never includes the budget type. Something I have noticed is that some centres don't advertise 'budget' tyres, but they do have them available.
 
PaulKempTheSecond said:
You’ll get half the durability on those cheap tyres. It’s their trick to match performance.
A brand like Nankang is the happy medium.
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I think its a bit more nuanced than that really.

Some Chinese tyres are rubbish, and some are good but we just have an inherent "Chinesium" attitude to a brand we don't know.
 
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