Reading: European Tyres Market Continues to Decline

By Oliver Hall

The European replacement tyres market declined again in May for the 14th consecutive month, according to a new report.

The sale of truck tyres nosedived between January and May by 32 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The report, compiled by ETRMA, the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association, also noted that the 24 per cent decline in May “confirms the strong deterioration of tyre demand”.

According to industry statistics, approximately 600,000 truck tyres were sold Europe-wide during the course of the month.

The European passenger car tyre sales also decreased eight per cent during the January to May period, and decreased 9% in May to around 12 million units.

However, the UK market suffered a much greater drop during the month, declining 26 per cent in May.
Some European markets, buoyed by national market support measures, experienced increased sales during the May period, including France, where passenger car sales rose 12 per cent.

The ETRMA comments that, “after a mitigated first part of the year 2008, the agricultural tyre market eventually got affected as well from August by the international crisis and the decrease of the tyre demand.”

The organisation points out that this decrease is particularly visible from October, and the market has remained negative since this time.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 28th, 2009 at 4:56 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.