Rubber & tire industry in numbers

PROJECTS

Kumho Tire is eyeing capacity expansion to meet its sales target of KRW5,000 billion (€3.2 billion) in 2025, up 15.5% year-on-year and increase its global tire production capacity to 65m units in 2025, up from 62m units in 2024. The increase will be achieved through improving facility efficiency and securing additional space at its eight global plants in Korea, China, the US, and Vietnam. Furthermore, the tire maker is currently studying the construction of a new European plant, with Poland, Portugal, and Serbia among the candidate locations.

M&A & RESTRUCTURING

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has completed the previously announced sale of its rights to the Dunlop brand to Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI). The rights cover consumer, commercial and other speciality tires in Europe, North America and Oceania together with certain associated intellectual property and inventory. The deal, valued at $735m (€650m), comprised of $526m for the Dunlop brand, $105m for a transition support fee and $104m for the purchase of Dunlop tire inventory.

Trelleborg Industrial Solutions has acquired silicone rubber specialist Sico Group, including Germany-based Sico Gesellschaft für Siliconverarbeitung mbH, and Sico Silicone sro, a JV in the Czech Republic, in which Trelleborg has held a 50% stake since 2016. Headquartered in Witten, Germany, Sico generated consolidated sales of €26m in 2024.

Synthomer is divesting William Blythe, its inorganic chemistry business, to its management team alongside H2 Equity Partners, for consideration of €35 million. Founded in 1845, William Blythe develops inorganic derivatives of elements such as tin, iodine, copper, zinc and tungsten for application in life sciences, performance coatings, polymers, electronics, catalysts and renewable energy. The business has 85 employees based at its UK manufacturing site in Accrington, Lancashire.

MARKETS & BUSINESS

The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) has published its members’ replacement tyre sales figures for the first quarter of 2025. (See data above).

Continental Tires reported a 3.7% year-on-year increase in Q1/25 sales to €3.4bn and adjusted earnings (EBIT) up 11.7% to €457m, helped by a good performance by its replacement-tire business across all regions. For the full year, the Tires group sector is expected to generate sales of €13.5-14.5bn, compared to €13.8bn reported last year. Adjusted EBIT margin for the sector is projected to reach around 13.3% to 14.3%.

Cooper Standard Holdings posted Q1/25 earnings of $58.7m (€51.7m, up from $29.3 million in the prior-year first quarter. Operating income came in at $22.3m, up from $3.49m in Q1/24 Sales fell 1.4% year-on-year to $667m. The sealing systems business unit posted a 51% year-on-year increase in adjusted earnings to $32.3mn, helped by cost improvements of $13.4m, while sales dropped 2% year-on-year to $344m. Fluid handling systems also posted a 91% year-on-year increase in adjusted earnings to $21m on Q1/25 sales slightly lower at $304m.

For Q1/25, ContiTech posted a 6.7% year-on-year dip in sales to €1.5bn and adjusted earnings down 6.8% to €82m. Parent group Continental expects ContiTech’s earnings to improve during 2025 on cost-saving measures and an anticipated increase in industrial demand in H2. Sales in the ContiTech group sector are projected to come in at €6.3-6.8bn, broadly matching the €6.4bn reported last year, while adjusted EBIT margin is forecast at around 6.0-7.0%.

Kumho Tire posted a 15.5% year-on-year rise in Q1/25 sales to KRW1,200bn, with operating profit flat at KRW144.8bn. The sales growth was driven by expansion in OE tire supply and high-margin replacement tires. In addition to a sales target of KRW5bn, Kumho aims to raise the proportion of 18-inch and larger tire sales to 46% of overall sales, and secure over 26% of its global OE sales from EV tires. In the first quarter, larger tires accounted for 42.6% of total sales, while EV tire OE sales reached 17.9%.

Nokian Tyres plc has launched a series of cost-cutting measures to enhance profitability, having reported a 'segment's operating loss' of €18.5m for Q1/25 – versus a loss of €15.1m for Q1/24. Segment's earnings (EBITDA) remained flat at €12.5 million. Sales for the three-month period grew 14.2% to €270m. This included a 7.3% year-on-year increase in passenger car tire sales to €174m, though operating loss widened from €13.5m in Q1/24 to €22.3m this year. Heavy Tyres, meanwhile, improved profitability from €6.3m to €7.3m this year. Segment sales rose slightly to €55.8m.

Nexen Tire signed an offtake agreement for recovered carbon black (rCB) with LD Carbon Co., a South Korea-based end-of-life tire (ELT) pyrolysis company. Nexen aims to use rCB across its plants in China, the Czech Republic, and Korea. LD Carbon inaugurated its waste tire pyrolysis plant in Dangjin late last month. It has capacity to process 50ktpa ELT-based “tire chips” into 20ktpa of rCB and 24ktpa of pyrolysis oil.

Titan Inc. has expanded its production rights for the Goodyear brand across the light construction/industrial, ATV, lawn and garden, and golf tires segments and renewed its Goodyear licensing rights in the farm tires segment.

Reka Rubber reported increased volumes at the beginning of the year, leading to a 7% year-on-year rise in Q1/25 sales to €8m. Earnings for the period reached €900k, up from €20k reported in the first quarter of 2024.

SHARE PRICES

Leading tire manufacturers’ share-price trends

Leading rubber product manufacturers’ share-price trends

MATERIALS

Natural rubber 

Natural rubber (NR) futures depicted a mixed picture during the trading week ended 2 May. Overall, trading volumes were mostly lower due to the Labour Day holidays in China and Singapore. Meanwhile, trade tensions between the US and China eased slightly after China exempted 131 US goods – valued at $40bn – from its tariffs list. Equity markets, said JPX, closed higher on some optimism as China began evaluating a US proposal related to ongoing tariff negotiations. In rubber-related news, Thailand's agriculture minister Narumon Pinyosinwat requested farmers to delay rubber tapping by one month to help support local prices. The move, it said, is expected to temporarily remove 300 kilotonnes of NR from global supply amid pressure from recent US tariffs.

JPX: Selected rubber futures price trends on major trading exchanges

 (ERJ calculation for selected futures)

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