Tyre Stocks Rally After Government Imposes Import Curbs
JK Tyre, CEAT and Apollo Tyres gain in the range of 5-10% on import curbs.
Shares of tyremakers rallied after India imposed curbs on imports of certain pneumatic tyres, used in cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles and scooters, in a move to protect domestic manufacturing.
JK Tyre & Industries Ltd., CEAT Ltd. and Apollo Tyres Ltd. gained in the range of 5-10% compared with a 1.4% drop in the benchmark Nifty 50 Index.
- JK Tyre snapped a four-day losing streak to gain as much as 10% to Rs 65.70 apiece.
- CEAT rose 5% to Rs 970 apiece, the highest in three months.
- Apollo Tyres gained as much as 5.6% to Rs 112.60 apiece, also a three-month high.
“Import policy of new pneumatic tyres is amended from free to restricted,” the Directorate General of Foreign Trade said in a notification on Friday. Restrictions are applicable to tyres used in station wagons, racing cars, scooters, multi-cellular polyurethane tubeless tyres and bicycles, it said.
That means an importer will now require a licence or permission from the directorate for imports.
Imports of these tyres, according to a PTI report, were worth $260.72 million in April-February 2019-20 against $330.72 million in 2018-19.
In December 2019, the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association had filed an application before the Directorate General of Trade Remedies over import of tyres from Thailand. After this, the Ministry of Commerce had launched an investigation. An anti-dumping duty on select radial tyres from China is already in place since 2017.