Illegal Tyre Imports Exposed During Raids On 3 Shah Alam Outlets

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Offences detected include the sale of European-market tyres that had been diverted to Malaysia.
Tyre manufacturer representatives helping to inspect tyres during the raids in Shah Alam today. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: Serious violations involving illegal tyre imports were uncovered in raids by enforcement agencies and representatives from major tyre manufacturers on three outlets in Shah Alam today
Bernama reported that representatives from eight major tyre manufacturers were present together with enforcement personnel from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia, and the domestic trade and cost of living ministry.
Offences detected included the sale of European-market tyres diverted to Malaysia, tyres not brought in through authorised distributors, tampered labels to conceal the countries of origin and falsified manufacturing dates to pass off old stock as new.
Florentin Odenwald, the managing director of Michelin Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, said labels had been tampered with to prevent consumers from recognising the tyres’ true origin.
“For the Malaysian market, we only import tyres manufactured in Thailand as they are specially formulated for local road and climate conditions,” he said.
Kit Loong Tayaria general manager Richard Quah said his company also found smuggled Pirelli tyres, noting that genuine imports carry laser-etched markings which were missing on the seized stock.
Earlier, tyre company representatives met MACC special operations division senior director Zamri Zainul Abidin at the commission’s headquarters to discuss measures to curb tyre smuggling as this poses safety risks to motorists.
Zamri said the companies welcomed the raids as it allowed them to verify the authenticity of the seized tyres.
On Monday, MACC had uncovered tyre smuggling activities and forged import-export documents. These activities are believed to have cost the government an estimated RM350 million in lost tax revenue since 2020.
MACC has frozen several personal and company bank accounts with RM70 million. - FMT

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