ETRMA says 2014 tire sales “positive”

Brussels – The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association [ETRMA] has published its members’ sales in the last quarter of 2014 as well as for the whole year, saying the results remained positive despite downturn in winter.

The last quarter of 2014 further confirmed the downturn in sales registered in the third quarter of the year, said the ETRMA report. An exception, it said, was motorcycle tires, which remained positive all the way through 2014.

The downward trend could be linked to the lower sales of winter tires, due to the mild winters experienced on the continent for last couple of years, ETRMA suggested.

Nevertheless, the report declared the year-end results “positive”, due to the “extremely good” sales of the first half of 2014.

The consumer’s tire segment, after one year of decrease (2012) and one of stagnation (2013), show a positive, albeit timid, growth.

By contrast, the truck and bus tire segment has now been growing for two years in a row.

“Although this segment has not yet recovered from its double-dip crisis, a steady growth gives the industry reason to hope that pre-2008 figures could be once more attained”, said Fazilet Cinaralp, secretary general of ETRMA.  The motorcycle tire segment also keeps steadily growing.

“Although the early sales figures of 2014 made us hope [for] a year of much greater expansion of the market, the final results confirm a year of positive stability,” she concluded.