Market focus: EU tire market ‘hinges on October’

Brussels – The European tire industry has been left hoping for a fourth-quarter recovery after some significant reverses in the previous three months, according to the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA).

Sales for passenger car tires, meanwhile, remained flat at over 57 million units in the third quarter, as did motorbike tires at 1.8 million units.

Over the first nine months of 2016, figures for the passenger car tire and truck tire segments stayed in positive territory: each registering growth of 1%.

However, ETRMA said growth was “almost completely eroded by the bad results of the latest months”.

Farm tire figures showed a decline of 6% over the three quarters, while motorbike tires had the sharpest rise in sales, 5% in the nine months to end of September.

"The outlook for end of year results looks grimmer than it did after the first quarter, but a lot hangs on the results of October, usually one of the most tale telling months of the year," said Fazilet Cinaralp, secretary general of ETRMA.