Indeed, Kramer described EMEA as a two-track market: strong growth for high-end products, in particular those sized 17-inch and above, but flat demand for those dimensioned 16-inch and below.
"We see the market as still demanding excellent technology driven by the OEMs. We really love the car park that still sits in Europe there," said Kramer.
On the other hand, he noted a continuing in-flow of low-end Asian tires into Europe, particularly via eastern Europe - partly fuelled by tariffs in other world regions.
"When tariffs go up in one region, those tires typically move to somewhere else," said Kramer. "In the past, they went down to South America, as those economies slowed and currencies depreciated, tariffs are back in the US… now they are in eastern Europe.
"So, as we fight off the low-cost tires coming into the East that actually has a negative impact on our mix in Europe. [This] hides some of the positive impacts we're getting on the 17-inch and above."
Going forward, Goodyear will focus on new products, leveraging its brands, and further actions to reduce cost, its leader commenting: "We're only on the front-end of fixing our European business over the long-term."
So while Kramer forecast "strong results in Europe" continuing into 2017, he also signalled “some significant cost actions there as we move ahead, as we look at our production over there.
Goodyear's EMEA team, he concluded, are "very focused on cost, day-to-day cost, as well as structural cost to reduce the fixed cost to that business going forward."
Comments by Richard Kramer sourced from Goodyear conference call transcript, supplied by Seeking Apha.
