Tight tire supply impacting US mining-sector rebound

Akron, Ohio - The mining tire market is enjoying continued growth in sales as the mining industry rebounds in the US supported by favourable government policies.

"Overall, 2018 was a positive year for the mining industry,” said Jake Thompson, B2B mining segment operations manager, Michelin North America.

Michelin saw growth in “almost all segments” with strong demand and low market supply in key areas, according to Thompson.

The tire maker anticipates continued growth through 2019 in both OE and the replacement market.

For Continental Tire the Americas, OE tire demand continued to “dramatically expand” year-over-year, particularly in sizes for larger equipment.

Likewise, the replacement tire market continued to grow in 2018 for the US and Canada but by a more modest level, according to Continental’s director of global business development of earthmover tires Shawn Rasey.

Future replacement demand, Rasey expects, should be buoyed by the large volume of new OE mining machines that entered the market in 2017 and 2018.

"While some product shortages will persist for much of the year, we would estimate that the OE channel will still grow in 2019, but at a slower rate than the previous two years," Rasey said.

For replacement, he went on to say, “the growth should be slightly up, with the caveat of some market niches may grow more based on improving supply."

For Bruce Besancon, Yokohama Tire Corp.'s vice president of OTR sales, coal mining has done “extremely well” over the last two to three years.

The pace, Besancon expects, will continue into 2019, mainly due to current federal administration policies.

"From our first indications of this year we are seeing a slight trend upwards,” he noted.

According to BKT USA, the OTR tire market in 2018 was a good year in North America.

The region experienced a tire shortage for large mining tires due to a reduction in production caused by raw material shortages.

This was coupled with a rise in tire demand driven by an increase in new equipment production.

“Demand has risen in the past year, but sales have only slightly increased because of availability constraints,” the tire maker said.

The company expects the mining industry to continue to grow as new mines open.

"Within a small Nevada area alone, six new mines are opening in late 2019 and early 2020," BKT said.

Demand, said the tire maker, will continue to grow based on the increasing need for construction raw material.