Reading: Three Leading Tyres Manufacturers Hike US Prices

By Alex Kapadia

Three more global tyres companies have announced that they are raising their prices in the US from the 1st January 2010.

Tyres giants Bridgestone, Continental and Yokohama are following in the tracks of Goodyear – whose price rise came into effect on 1st December – and Nexen, who will be implementing an increase at the start of the New Year.

The trio have blamed the increases on rising raw material and energy costs.

Bridgestone will be increasing its prices by up to 5 per cent on its Bridgestone, Firestone and associate brand consumer tyres.

It will be applied to both original equipment and replacement tyres.

Michael Gorey, president of US and Consumer Tyres for Bridgestone, said: “The steady increase in raw materials and energy costs made it necessary for us to take this action.

“While we are successfully implementing measures at all levels of our company to enhance our efficiencies and increase our productivity, those efforts are simply not enough to overcome the escalation of raw materials costs.”

Continental will raise prices on its Continental, General and proprietary brand passenger and light truck tyres by up to five per cent.

Again, it cited “increasing costs” for the price hike.

Yokohama will boost prices on all consumer tyres by up to six per cent in response to “a continued rise in the cost of raw materials and transportation.”

Shan Denlein, director of sales, consumer products, said: “it was a difficult decision to raise prices, and we held off as long as we could. Unfortunately, the costs of some raw materials, energy and transportation continue to escalate, leaving us no option.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Bridgestone, Continental, Firestone, Goodyear, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.