Tire Tariff Hijinks

So today everyone in the business has been talking back and forth about the 35% tariff coming up on Chinese tires.

One thing that happened is I tried to get online with one big supplier for the West Coast - no good, website down. Later in the day its back up and all the prices are higher (already!). I talked to the rep there and he said first that they have so much coming in every day raising prices on individual tires as the tariff takes effect in would be a nightmare to keep track of, so they're just bumping everything now. He offered that if we called in and asked we could get the old prices for a little while still.

On further conversation with someone else in the same company a more interesting part - the real reason for the price jump is a BIG west coast tire dealer offered to buy all of their standing inventory to stockpile before the price goes up. Then, knowing them, they would sell it at jacked up prices later and pocket the extra 35% or so. The distributor decided to just raise prices themselves rather than undercut their own dealers.

It kind of stinks anyway you look at it, but at least in the long run it should help US manufacturing.

For instance "Toyo" is a Japanese brand, but 40% of their tires are made in China. Kumho is a Korean tire, which has also moved a bunch of production to China. "Chaoyang" is one Chinese tire company, but they sell under a bunch of Americanized labels here. "Made in China" will be molded into the sidewall if its made there.