Alloy Wheel Report, Part 2: Replacement Market Germany 2001”Serious Situation, But By No Means Without Hope …”

After the OE-market for light alloy wheels was examined and discussed in detail in the March issue of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG, the second part of our wheel report focuses on the situation in the international, and specially the German, replacement market situation. In the first part of the introductory article actual developments and trends in the sector are discussed. One trend, for example, is the continuing price struggle of the competitors which has – allied with a stagnating general market situation – had great influence on the wheel business as a whole and has been fought out more and more in the winter segment.

One victim of this development was the company Intra/Exip, which had to announce insolvency at the beginning of this year. Furthermore an increasing interest of aftermarket companies in OE-business has to be considered. Parallel to this observation the “spring time offensive” in the aftermarket which was announced by OE-suppliers last year did not take place at all, because these companies (like e.

g. Ronal and Borbet) had more than enough on their plates in order to fulfil their OE commitments. In the second part of the introductory article the aftermarket players are ranked according to their sales figures/volumes in 2001.

We estimate the complete volume of the German aftermarket in 2001 at 2.65 million units. This figure includes the wheels which have been sold by companies with their own production (e.

g. ATS, Artec/RH, BBS, Borbet, Dezent, Ronal, Rial) as well as by the ones without their own production to wholesalers and retailers. Furthermore the wheels that have been sold into the business by passenger car importers are counted and – last but not least – the private brands of the wholesalers themselves (Alcar with “AEZ/Enzo/Dotz”, Interpneu with “Platin” or Brüning with “ProLine”).

The number of tuning-wheels sold in Germany amounts to 300,000 additional units. Last year experts predicted a mid term decrease of the market of up to minus 20 per cent over the next four years. Nowadays nobody wants to confirm this fairly negative perspective anymore.

“Mid term regressive market” – this is the forecasting formula creating the greatest consensus among the market experts now. One reason for this slightly more positive prediction might be found in the extremely buoyant winter business with alloy wheels that are getting cheaper and cheaper and are accepted more and more as a serious alternative to steel wheels by the end-users. The decrease in other sectors is partly compensated by this.

The consequences of the terror threats of the 11th September in New York for the light alloy wheel sector are quite difficult to predict. Should there be a large negative effect on the worldwide sales figures of new cars, this would have an effect on the international wheel suppliers also. First of all this development would hit the OEM-suppliers, with a certain slow-down too in the aftermarket.

A certain uncertainty of what the future will bring is the order of the day in the alloy wheel sector. As a result of this uncertainty, some companies have slowed down or stopped their investment programmes, at least for the time being..