ETRMA reports timid recovery in car tyre markets

ERJ staff report (DS)

Brussels -- European markets for car tyres are recovering slowly, but markets for truck and agricultural tyres are still very depressed, according to new data from the ETRMA.

ETRMA, which represents all the main manufacturers of tyres in Europe, said the car tyre sector experienced a small but constant growth in both replacement and original equipment sales. Against this positive trend, the actual sales figures were poor, with OE sales down by 18 percent over the year, at 65 million units. Almost all the decline was incurred in the first 8 months of the year. Monthly OE sales in 2009 were higher than the same month in 2008 for each of the last three months of the year.

Replacement sales for the year reached around 190 million units compared with 195 million in 2008.

Looking at the major markets in 2009 only Germany, Italy Austria and Poland increased their sales, but the volume is still less than in 2007. Meanwhile in France, UK and Spain the markets maintained their sales or even small amount of decrease was reported.

The truck sector, said ETRMA, continued to be seriously depressed in 2009. The organistion said The Replacement sales suffered a further -16% decrease compared to 2008. The OEM sales were -62% lower than in 2008. it added that total truck tyre sales reached just 10 million units which is a -30% decrease compared to 2008.

Agricultural tyres, said ETRMA saw sales fall by 16 percent in the 12 months to December 2009.

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Press release from source