Pirelli targets US market for next phase of growth

Milan, Italy – Pirelli & C. SpA is targeting the US for its next phase of growth with an eye to increasing its share of the market for large rim-sized ‘high-value’ tires in the region.

“We have a lot of opportunities in the US market because we have a lower market-share compared to the other regions in the high-value [segments],” said Andrea Casaluci, general manager operations.

“We were able to gain [market] share in 2022 and we'll target clearly to [increase market-share] in 2023 and the coming years,” he said during a 22 Feb earnings call.

According to the Pirelli official, the Italian tire maker is planning to achieve growth in the US through new product launches.

The company has also targeted OE partnerships in the US.

“We are entering in US original equipment [market with] partners that were not customers of Pirelli five years ago,” he stated.

These customers include GM, Chrysler, Tesla and iconic cars such as F-150 and the Dodge Ram.

According to Casaluci, Pirelli is also enlarging its customer-base with long-term agreements with the “most important distributors” in the region.

Pirelli announced in its full-year results that it had earmarked €400 million (6% of revenues) for Capex in 2023.

The figure, it said, will be invested in technology upgrades at factories, improving product-mix and increasing 'high-value' capacity in Romania and North America, by 2025.

Of that amount, Casaluci said, “more or less 30%” will be related to capacity increases, mainly concentrated in Europe and North America.

Around 45% will be invested in technology upgrades and digital transformation, while the remaining 25% will focus on “business continuity”.