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The country's five tyre manufacturers say the dumping of cheap tyre imports is one of several major challenges facing the industry.
In a statement on Thursday, the South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference, said other challenging factors were lack of service delivery, high electricity costs, increasing transport costs and the huge waste tyre fees that had been introduced.
Chief executive, Dr Etienne Human, says there are also additional issues, such as one-sided labour laws, the pending carbon tax, the high cost of tooling imports due to the weak Rand and reduced productivity that influence local manufacturing.
However, he says despite the many challenges, the local tyre manufactures have been operating successfully, some for over 85 years, contributing close to 20 billion rand to the South African economy annually and providing decent direct jobs to at least 6,500 people nationally.
Dr Human says the tyre industry is also a contributor to the provincial economies of the Eastern Cape, Kwazulu Natal and North West.
The SA Tyre Manufacturers Conference are Apollo - formally Dunlop - Sumitomo, as well as Bridgestone, Continental and Goodyear which are situated in the Eastern Cape.
