With its new Bioeconomy Strategy, which is due for adoption by the end of 2025, the European Commission aims to “advance innovation” and maintain the EU’s “leadership in the bioeconomy.” The Commission is currently welcoming feedback from stakeholders, an opportunity the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers Association (ETRMA) has availed itself of.
Europe’s automotive industry is facing an existential crisis, and you can be sure that the solution will involve much discussion, new regulations and public spending. The European Commission’s new Action Plan builds upon the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the European Automotive Industry, which launched in January. Amongst other points, the Commission “will make available 1.8 billion euros to create a secure and competitive supply chain for battery raw materials.” The ETRMA calls instead for an “inclusive approach” that “considers the actors and stakeholders in the automotive ecosystem, including the tyre industry.”
Although considering the European Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal (CID) a crucial step in securing Europe’s industrial future, the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers Association (ETRMA) stresses that “greater ambition” is still required to “truly enhance competitiveness and sustainability in the tyre industry.” Adam McCarthy, the association’s Secretary General, shares the ETRMA perspective on CID.
Better late than never. In recent times the governments of Europe seem to have woken up to a situation most saw coming from afar and are now directing a flurry of activity towards rescuing the region’s industries. One such measure is the European Commission’s planned Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the European Automotive Industry. A total of ,906 economic operators, NGOs, public administrations and citizens responded to the Commission’s call for consultation ahead of this dialogue, including the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA).
Anyone who likes an acronym will love the Sustainable Materials for Innovative, Low Emissions applications in the CIrcular ciTY project. The European Tyre Recycling Association (ETRA), coordinator of the European Commission-based venture, jauntily calls it SMILE CITY.
In addition to Strategic Dialogues and a Competitive Compass, The European Union is developing a Single Market Strategy for 2025 as part of its response to strong external competition. The European Commission is tasked with creating a horizontal single market strategy by June 2025, the aim being to address market fragmentation and present a roadmap with clear timelines and actions. The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers Association (ETRMA) views the Single Market Strategy as a “great opportunity” to address the “significant challenges” tyre makers face in maintaining a competitive manufacturing presence in Europe.
Making good on his earlier promise to impose levies on Chinese, Canadian and Mexican-produced goods entering the USA, President Donald Trump announced over the weekend of 1-2 February that he is indeed implementing tariffs of 10 per cent on Chinese goods and 25 per cent on good coming from Canada and Mexico effective 4 February 2025. That news was followed up with suggestions of further tariffs against the European Union “soon”. The combination of the two actions sent European share prices downwards, with automotive industry shares particularly affected. Here we take a look at how the tariffs might affect vehicle makers and those that supply them.
The European Commission initiated the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the European Automotive Industry yesterday with a high-level meeting convened by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Bringing together key industry leaders, social partners, and stakeholders, the dialogue aims to address pressing challenges and establish a roadmap for a sustainable and competitive future. The meeting marks the beginning of a broad, inclusive process designed to safeguard the automotive sector’s role as a cornerstone of the European economy.
Commenting further on the European Union’s Competitive Compass, the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA), calls it an “important step toward strengthening Europe’s industrial base.” However, the association believes its success will depend on clear implementation and enforcement measures, regulatory consistency, and meaningful industry engagement.
Introducing its new Competitiveness Compass, the European Commission states that “Europe has many economic strengths but must act now to regain its competitiveness and secure its prosperity.” It opines that “a resolute European response is urgently needed” to safeguard the 27-member union’s future as an “economic powerhouse” where products and investments are made. The answer, the Commission shares, is “A Competitiveness Compass of the EU.”
European automotive manufacturer and supplier organisations has responded positively to the Strategic Dialogue that the European Commission will commence with the industry and other key stakeholders on 30 January. The Commission has organised these talks to address the current “period of significant transformation” that is “challenging the established strengths of European carmakers.”
The European Commission has published its final decision on extending the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on truck and bus tyres produced in China. The new tariffs amount to figures between €21.12 and a maximum of €78.90 per tyre, effective immediately following the 16 January publication of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/58 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/61, both of 15 January 2025.
A report prepared for the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) shows the extent of the European tyre industry’s contribution to the regional economy last year. This analysis by Oxford Economics shows that in 2023, the tyre manufacturing sector supported an estimated total contribution to the European Union’s GDP of around €44 billion and sustained almost 500,000 jobs across the region.
It may be behind schedule, but Bolder Industries is pressing ahead with plans to set up a pyrolysis facility in Antwerp for obtaining raw materials from end-of-life-tyres, and its efforts have been given a boost in the form of a 32 million euro grant by the European Commission through the EU Innovation Fund pilot programme. This is further supplemented by a 2 million euro grant from Belgium’s Flanders region. The funding will enable the construction of Bolder’s European facility at the Port of Antwerp, a plant capable of recycling over four million end-of-life tyres annually.
The EU Council has agreed to postpone the application of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by 12 months, a decision that the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers Association “regrets”. The tyre makers’ representative believes that pushing back the start dates “brings a new phase of uncertainty” into an industry that “needs predictability, and action from the European Commission to bring further clarity and solve the remaining issues standing in the way of a full and fair implementation of the Regulation.”
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