European tire makers post strong 2015

Brussels – European tire manufacturers turned in a strong performance in 2015, helped by a fourth-quarter surge in the consumer tire market, new data from the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) shows.

Over last year as a whole, OE consumer tires sales grew by around 9 percent, in-line with growth in new car sales, ETRMA estimated.

Sales of replacement consumer car tires increased by 3 percent to 203,089,000 units, while sales of OE consumer tires rose 6 percent to 89.432,000 units.

ETRMA’s figures also show that sales of passenger car summer tires rose 5 percent to 115,398, 000 units. Car winter tires, meanwhile, increased by 4 percent to 55,526,000 units.

In the truck tire segment, sales were up again for the third year in a row, with gains of 10 percent (to 3,545,000 units) and 4 percent (to 9,522,000 units) for the OE and replacement markets respectively.

Sales of motorcycle and scooter tires, meanwhile ended 2015 2 percent higher than the prior-year level.

An exception to the positive trend was the agricultural tires sector, where replacement sales declined 9 percent to 1,501,000 units, the ETRMA report said.

*ETRMA’s membership include the following tyre manufacturers: Apollo Vredestein, Bridgestone Europe, BRISA, Cooper Tires, Continental, Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe, Hankook, Marangoni, Michelin, Mitas, Nokian Tyres, Pirelli and Trelleborg Wheel Systems.

Members also include associations in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK.