Russian downturn to hit Nokian Tyres

ERJ staff report (PR)

Nokian Tyres has downgraded its forecasts for sales and earnings in 2014. due to economic weakness in Russia and the CIS.

In particular, the devalued Rouble had hurt Russian economy and the purchasing power of Russian consumers, thus weakening tyre demand, Nokian said 3 April.

The company is, however, still benefitting from having manufacturing operations inside Russia. 55% of the tyre production is exported, and the margin between production costs in Roubles and tyre export sales in Euros has increased.

This, though, is not enough to compensate for the weaker market conditions in Russia, said Nokian, which will publish a full interim report for January-March on 7 May.