Changing Origins of U.S. Automobile Tires

In 2015, China was the leading source of U.S. imports of the pneumatic tires (HS 4011) used on passenger automobiles, as Exhibit A reveals. Its share of the dollar value of the import trade that year was 20.6%. Canada was the next largest supplier with an 11.6% share. The two top Asian auto manufacturers, Japan and South Korea accounted for 10.3% and 10.2% shares, respectively. Thailand held an 8.2% share, while Mexico, a partner in the North American Trade Area, supplied 5.5% of U.S. tire imports in 2015. Virtually all of the HS 4011 imports from Canada and Mexico travel by truck and rail, mostly as the installed components of finished vehicle imports.

Exhibit B compares the leading sources of U.S. waterborne imports of automobile tires in 2015 and 2025 ranked by declared weight. As a supplier of car tires to the U.S. market, China has clearly dropped from the picture.

Over the decade between 2015 and last year, tire imports from China plummeted from a 24.8% share to just 3.5% last year. Shipments from Thailand jumped to a 23.9% share from a 10.3% share to lead all individual overseas suppliers. The biggest percentage gains were recorded by two Southeast Asian economies. Vietnam saw its share of the U.S. tire waterborne trade jump from 1.5% to 9.5%, while Cambodia grew its portion of the trade from 0.0% in 2015 to 7.3% last year.

Exhibit C displays the shifts in ports of entry of waterborne imports of passenger automobile tires over the past decade. In 2015, the Southern California Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handled 47.0% of the trade. By 2025, that share had declined to 35.0%. By contrast, the Ports of New York/New Jersey (PNYNJ) increased its share of the waterborne import trade to 16.3% from 9.7%. The Mid-Atlantic Coast ports of Savannah and Charleston saw their respective shares move in different directions, with the former growing from an 11.4% share to a 12.6% share, while the latter sustained a fall-off from 11.0% to 8.0%.

Along the U.S. West Coast, the tonnage share of U.S. tire imports arriving at the Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle fell from 5.8% in 2015 to 4.2% in 2025. Meanwhile, the share of tire import tonnage entering through the Port of Oakland increased from 1.3% to 2.3%.