VLAB Journal / Motorcycle Tire Export

Thailand & Indonesia Scooter Tire Export: Michelin City Grip, City Grip 2 & Pirelli Angel Scooter

How VLAB sources and consolidates Michelin and Pirelli scooter tires across Thailand and Indonesia for international wholesalers, distributors, rental operators and B2B buyers.

English Version

When buyers first contact us about motorcycle tires, the first question is usually price. That is understandable, especially when an order involves hundreds of tires or a full container where even a small difference in unit price can significantly change the total purchasing cost.

However, after sourcing motorcycle products in both Thailand and Indonesia, we have learned that the cheapest quotation is not always the quotation that can actually be shipped.

A competitive tire export order needs several things to work at the same time: price, available quantity, production information, size mix, consolidation time and the buyer’s required shipping schedule.

This is why VLAB uses both Thailand and Indonesia as sourcing markets rather than depending on only one country.

For products such as Michelin City Grip, Michelin City Grip 2 and Pirelli Angel Scooter, Indonesia can offer extremely competitive pricing. Thailand, on the other hand, can sometimes provide stronger stock availability and more predictable quantities.

Depending on the buyer’s order, the most practical sourcing solution may therefore be Indonesia, Thailand or a combination of both.

When we receive an international inquiry for Michelin or Pirelli scooter tires, Indonesia is often one of the first markets we check.

The reason is simple. For many popular scooter sizes, Indonesian sourcing prices can be significantly more competitive than equivalent supply from Thailand.

This becomes especially important when the buyer is purchasing 300, 500 or more than 1,000 tires. A price difference that looks small on one tire can become a major difference once the order reaches container scale.

For this reason, many of our larger tire projects begin by checking available Indonesian stock by size and then consolidating the quantities that can realistically be secured.

The important point is that we do not consider a quotation complete simply because a supplier has provided a unit price. We also need to know whether the required quantity exists, how quickly additional stock can be collected and whether the available size mix is suitable for the buyer’s market.

This is one of the biggest differences between small retail purchasing and international B2B tire sourcing.

A buyer may need 500 pieces of one specific tire size, but the best-priced source may have only 20 or 30 pieces available at that moment.

In that case, the low unit price is useful only for those 20 or 30 tires. It does not solve the buyer’s actual purchasing requirement.

For larger orders, we therefore check how much stock can be secured immediately, how much may be collected from additional locations and whether the remaining quantity can be supplied within the buyer’s required schedule.

If Indonesian pricing is so competitive, why do we still purchase scooter tires from Thailand?

The answer is stock availability.

There are situations where the Indonesian price is clearly better but the required quantity cannot be collected quickly enough. Thailand may have a higher unit price, but certain sizes can be available in much larger quantities.

This is particularly important for buyers such as motorcycle rental operators, tire wholesalers, large workshops and distributors. These customers sometimes need several hundred tires of one particular size within a relatively short period.

If the customer needs the tires for an upcoming sales program, fleet maintenance schedule or wholesale delivery, waiting indefinitely for the cheapest stock may cost more than paying a slightly higher price for tires that can actually be supplied.

Many international tire inquiries do not consist of one product and one size.

A distributor may require several scooter tire sizes in the same shipment, with some sizes needed in large quantities and others included only to complete the product range.

For example, an importer may ask us to build a shipment using several Michelin City Grip or City Grip 2 sizes together with selected Pirelli Angel Scooter sizes.

In this situation, sourcing becomes a consolidation project.

We may need to collect available quantities from different locations, compare the stock between Thailand and Indonesia, monitor remaining quantities and decide whether it is better to wait for additional stock or ship the available products first.

For buyers planning larger shipments, especially container-level orders, this consolidation work can be just as important as negotiating the unit price.

One advantage of working across both Thailand and Indonesia is that we do not need to treat one country as the answer to every order.

If Indonesian stock gives the buyer the best price and enough quantity is available, we can build the shipment there.

If Indonesian stock is insufficient but Thailand has the quantity the buyer urgently needs, we can evaluate Thai supply instead.

There are also cases where one country can supply most sizes while another country is more suitable for a particular size.

This is why our sourcing decision is normally based on the complete RFQ rather than only the brand name.

Our role is to compare those conditions and build a supply plan that can actually be executed.

We see a similar pattern in genuine motorcycle parts.

Some buyers, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, specifically request Honda Genuine Parts supplied through Thailand or ask us to confirm whether a product is Made in Thailand.

Some customers tell us that they personally prefer Thailand-produced Honda parts based on their previous experience. We do not claim that Thailand-made parts are inherently better than products made in another country because we have not conducted independent quality testing that would prove such a difference.

However, customer preference is an important part of B2B sourcing, so when a buyer requests a specific production country or Thailand-market packaging, we need to verify those details.

Ordering From Honda Thailand Does Not Mean Everything Is Made in Thailand

Another common misunderstanding is that a genuine part ordered in Thailand must also have been manufactured in Thailand.

That is not necessarily the case.

Among Honda Genuine Parts we have actually received through our Thailand supply network, we have seen products manufactured in Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan and other countries.

All of these examples are genuine parts sourced through the Thailand market, but their manufacturing origins are not necessarily the same.

Some overseas buyers are satisfied as long as the product comes through the Thailand Honda supply channel and carries the expected Thai-market label and genuine packaging. Others specifically require Made in Thailand products.

For this reason, we distinguish between where the product is purchased and where the product was manufactured.

The type of buyer also changes how a tire order should be sourced.

A workshop buying 20 tires has very different priorities from a distributor preparing a container order.

For larger buyers, continuity becomes important. They need to know whether the same products can be sourced again, whether a particular size is consistently available and whether the supply route can support repeat orders.

That is why we prefer to understand the buyer’s actual business requirement rather than quoting one shipment without considering what may happen after the first order.

How We Build a B2B Motorcycle Tire Export Order

For larger Michelin and Pirelli inquiries, a clear size and quantity list allows us to compare Thailand and Indonesia much more efficiently.

For Tire Export, Price Is Only One Part of the Order

It is easy to compare tire suppliers only by unit price, especially when reviewing an initial quotation.

In actual B2B trade, however, the order succeeds only when the required quantity can be secured, the size mix can be completed and the shipment can be prepared within the buyer’s schedule.

For Michelin City Grip, City Grip 2 and Pirelli Angel Scooter, Indonesia can provide very strong price competitiveness, which is why it is an important sourcing market for our export business.

Thailand remains equally important when inventory depth, urgent supply or predictable availability becomes more important than obtaining the lowest possible unit price.