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The Italian government wants clarification from the American authorities. The Americans could impose restrictions on Italian tyre maker Pirelli because its largest shareholder is a Chinese investor.
The revelation regarding the involvement of Italian officials in talks with American counterparts in the Pirelli case comes in a context in which the authorities in Washington want to limit the use of Chinese technology in the automotive industry,
Pirelli’s Chinese and Italian shareholders are also in a dispute over the group’s governance. China’s state-owned Sinochem Group is Pirelli’s largest individual shareholder, with a 37 percent stake, and Camfin, the investment vehicle of Italian businessman Marco Tronchetti Provera, controls a 27.4 percent stake.
Pirelli’s management team and Camfin have previously warned that Sinochem’s stake poses a risk to the tyre maker’s ambitions to expand into the US.
Washington plans to ban software and hardware systems from companies controlled by Chinese shareholders in connected vehicles running on U.S. roads, with software bans set to take effect from 2027 and hardware bans from 2029.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources consulted by Reuters revealed that the Italian government wants clarification from Washington on whether the U.S. law will also apply to tire maker Pirelli and, if so, to what extent. Officials in Rome are trying to help Pirelli in its talks with Washington, the sources added.
Pirelli generates more than 20% of its revenue in North America, and in the case of value-added products the percentage is 40%.
Sinochem’s stake in Pirelli could come under Washington’s scrutiny because the Italian group has developed technology that allows data collected from its Cyber Tyres tires to be transferred to the vehicle in real time.
On Thursday, Pirelii will hold the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to approve the financial reports for 2024, which some of Sinochem’s representatives on the company’s board have not approved.
The Pirelli Group entered Romania in 2004, when it founded the company „Pirelli Tyres Romania”. The construction of the tire factory in Slatina is a greenfield project started in 2005, and the first tires were manufactured in 2006.
