Page 6 - CTB N21 - 2018-01

NEWS EU Orders Registration of Chinese Truck and Bus Tyre Imports the necessary documents to customers in good time to enable them to continue to operate safely. "For the extension application, all that needs to be done is to send an informal letter to the competent Technical Service that performed the basic approval in accordance with ECE-R 109," explained Christoph Priewasser, Product Manager at KRAIBURG Austria. The Technical Service then makes a formal application to the competent approval authority on behalf of the retreading specialist. The latter obtains the test reports required for this from Prüflabor Nord. "For documenting the measures taken, we recommend our customers to file the pattern information with their own QM documentation, so that it is already available when the customer receives the approval notice from the Technical Service. The design information can, of course, be requested from ourselves at any time", he added. In this context, Priewasser explicitly pointed out that the use of retreads in Germany is funded as part of the de minimis scheme. The support covers 80 percent of the eligible expenditure, which varies between 50 percent and 100 percent of the The European Commission has given notice of a Regulation (EU) 2018/163 dated February 1, 2018 making imports of new and retreaded tyres for buses or lorries originating in the People’s Republic of China subject to regulation. Published in the Official Journal of the European Union dated 2 February, 2018, the new regulation relates to the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy proceedings initiated on 11 August 2017 and 14 October 2017 respectively. According to the basic anti-dumping and anti-subsidy regulations the Commission has the power to direct the customs authorities to register imports, so that measures can be subsequently applied to those imports. According to the complainant in the case – the coalition against unfair tyre imports – registration is justified because the tyres in question are being both dumped and subsidised, because this action is causing damage to EU industry and because the action is difficult to repair. The dumping part of the request for registration was upheld on several grounds, firstly that the importers of Chinese tyres were aware, or should have been aware, of the alleged dumping practices, the extent of it and the alleged injury to the industry at that particular point in time, secondly because the volume of imports of the tyres in question increased by 14.3 % in the period from April to September 2017 when compared to the volume of imports during the same period in 2016, and finally because the volume of the dumped imports and other circumstances (such as the decline in the Union industry's sales, turnover, employment and profit notably on the lower market segment) were considered likely to seriously undermine the remedial effect of any definitive duties, unless such duties were applied retroactively. As regards subsidisation, the Commission said it had at its disposal sufficient evidence that imports of truck and bus tyres from China were being subsidised. The alleged subsidy practices consist, namely, of direct transfer of funds and potential direct transfers of funds or liabilities, government revenue forgone or not collected, and government provision of goods or services for less than adequate remuneration. This includes, for example, evidence of the existence of various grants, preferential loans and directed credits by State-owned banks as well as private banks, export credits and export guarantees and insurances; government provision of land, energy, water and raw materials for producing the product concerned; and income tax reductions and exemptions, import tariff rebates and VAT exemptions and rebates. The fact that these imports will now need to be registered means that should the investigation result in findings leading to the imposition of anti-dumping and/or countervailing duties those duties could be levied retroactively. The amount of possible future liability has been set at the level of underselling estimated on the basis of the complaint, namely 26 %-37 % based on the CIF import value of the products concerned. The Regulation concerning the registration of imports came into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, namely 3 Feb, 2018. purchase, rental or lease price of the tyre, according to the axle position. Information on which KRAIBURG tyre treads are currently 3PMSF certified and other information about the de minimis support programme and KRAIBURG Austria are available at www.kraiburg-austria.com. Zenises Accepts Bitcoin for all Transactions Zenises is to become the first tyre company in the world to accept Bitcoin for all its transactions both off line and online. The company has been working to develop the technology at its newly launched technology centre in Madrid and is working with several experts in the Blockchain world. Harjeev Kandhari stated that, "Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrencies are the way forward in the world today. We believe that, being a customer- centric company, we must move with the times and offer our customers more options than just fiat currency payments. Moreover, this lowers the cost of transactions for all parties involved and provides more value to our customers. We have already received our first payment in Bitcoin and all systems are go! We are now working on the platforms to accept other cryptocurrencies in the near future." Zenises has become the first tyre company to accept Bitcoin for all its transactions New 3PMSF Labelling Regulations Now in Force Since the 1st of January 2018, the manufacturer labelling of winter retreads for commercial vehicles and their trailers with the 3PMSF pictogram has been mandatory. This applies when these retreads are used on public roads in Germany and certain other European countries. It means that retreaders active in those countries need to expand their basic approval procedure in accordance with ECE-R 109. As a leading material supplier, KRAIBURG Austria has not only integrated approved patterns into the product range early, but has also kept its customers informed, accompanied them in the process and, above all, supplied all 6 Commercial Tyre Business