Historic growth of tire imports to the U.S. finally peaked last year, plunging by double digits in some segments as demand slowed. Thailand maintained its hold as the top tire exporter to the U.S. last year, and Cambodia emerged as a growing source of tires for U.S. customers.

While tire imports gained 18 percent in value in 2021 over 2020, and 54 percent in 2022 over 2021, that metric fell 4.8 percent in 2023 to $18.7 billion. Imports of medium truck and bus tires decreased 27.3 percent last year. Imports from Canada, the fourth largest exporter of truck/bus tires to the U.S., were down 3.6 percent, but every other country was down at least 17 percent. The average declared customs value of a truck/bus tire was $188.72 in 2023, up 10.5 percent over 2022.

Imports of light truck tires fell 10.5 percent. The average declared customs value of a light truck tire was $81.54 in 2023, up 4.2 percent over 2022. Passenger tire imports, on the other hand, increased by 1.1 percent in 2023. The average declared customs value of a passenger tire was $59.70 in 2023, a gain of 5.9 percent over 2022. The decline in imports reflects overall numbers in North America. As historic demand of the last few years has slowed and dealer' inventory has backed up, 2023 reflected that destocking across the industry.

Thailand continues to be the top tire trade partner to the U.S. in both value and units. Overall, imports from Thailand were valued at $3.3 billion (down 3.7 percent versus 2022). Following Thailand, Mexico's import value increased 15.6 percent to $2.2 billion. No. 3 Japan saw an overall increase in value 2.5 percent or $1.79 billion, followed by No. 4 Canada, whose imports increased 6.7 percent in value to $1.69 billion. In the passenger tire segment in 2023, Thai imports increased 19.8 percent or about 6 million more tires compared with 2022. Mexico, No. 2 in the segment, saw an increase of 6.5 percent. In the light truck segment, imports from Thailand decreased 4.6 percent, down about 300,000 units. Vietnam, No. 2 in the segment, and Canada, No. 3, suffered declines in imports of 16.5 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.

In the medium truck/bus tire segment, Thailand's shipments to the U.S. decreased a higher than average 30.5 percent in 2023. Nonetheless, Thailand's exports to the U.S. exceeded 7 million tires last year. Vietnam was No. 2 at 2.2 million units (down 27.4 percent), followed by Japan with 2.08 million units (down 18.1 percent).