Distributors of Toyo Tires lately revealed that sedan tires of Toyo Tires had quality defects and they flowed into the Chinese market.
A test report on sedan tires of Toyo Tires, produced in Feb. 2013, shows that the additives of the tires separated out, implying a flawed formula.
A source said the brake performance of the problematic tires is much lower, thus affecting driving safety.
All the problematic tires are snow tires and have been sold to the northern Chinese cities, including Shenyang, Harbin, and Urumchi. But Toyo Tires refused to admit the problematic tires.
The batch of tires, value about 20 million yuan, were mixed with ordinary tires and sent to the distributors for sale in the Chinese market.
The Zhangjiagang plant of Toyo Tires discovered the problem before the tires exit the factory. To conceal the flaw from distributors and consumers, Japanese managers of the factory asked Chinese workers to clean the tires with gasoline.
But wiping the surface of a tire with gasoline will erode the rubber, thus reducing the life of tires.
Before the tires were putting into the market, a market director of Toyo Tires in China warned the Japanese managers that the flawed tires should be sold on the Chinese market, if so, they would lose more than tens of millions of tires, but the several billion yuan worth of Chinese market.
Unfortunately, the warning has been listened to, and the marketing director was transferred to another place in Asia.
