Bought any branded tyres on the cheap recently? Well, if you did, they could well be cloned or not certified, which could mean you’re going about on tyres that aren’t quite what they seem, despite looking the part.
The problem isn’t new, but the magnitude of it at this point might be. That’s because of the discovery of stacks of sticker labels in a warehouse in Shah Alam that was raided by authorities earlier this week, the New Straits Times reports.
The raid was part of Ops Grip, which saw a multi-agency task force led by the Malaysian anti-corruption commission (MACC) making simultaneous raids at 23 locations across the Klang Valley, Penang and Johor. A total of 17,672 tyres were seized from various locations, including warehouses and tyre storage containers.
The sticker labels are supposed to be affixed to brand new tyres when they leave the manufacturing line at a factory, and their discovery prompted the commission to meet with transport and domestic trade ministry officials as well as industry players to establish the severity of the problem, given that the scope has moved beyond just that of suspected tyre smuggling and falsifying import documents.
The discussion, which happened earlier today, was to ascertain how far such tyres have infiltrated the Malaysian market. “The agenda of the meeting is to discuss the way forward after the discovery of suspected cloned tyres as well as tyres which may not be certified by governing bodies,” a source told the publication.
According to the source, it was possible that some of the cheaper tyres seized during the raids were not certified at all. “Some of the tyres seized could have the certified United Nations E-Mark and United States Department of Transportation mark branded into the rubber during the manufacturing process without possessing the actual certification,” the source said.
Following the raids, the commission also asked industry players to visit the raided sites so they could understand the issues more closely and expedite solutions. At least eight leading international and local tyre manufacturers inspected several tyre storage warehouses earlier today.
According to a follow-up NST report, companies present in the inspection included Michelin, Bridgestone, Toyo, Continental, Goodyear, Yokohama, Maxxis and Pirelli. These companies also deployed their own technical teams to check various aspects of their products, particularly with regards to their authenticity. Some of the issues detected included tampered production dates, tampered tyre sticker labels as well as suspected smuggled tyres.
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