US Tyre Shipments – Mixed Fortunes

There was good news and bad news when figures detailing tyre shipments in the US market were released recently. In the replacement market, passenger car tyre shipments for March rose 4.4 per cent over the same month last year to 18.2 million units. OE shipments, however, were down 10.9 per cent, to 4.7 million units. For light trucks, replacement shipments fell 3.8 per cent, to 3 million units, and the OE market shipments were down 23.1 per cent, to 0.6 million units.

Passenger car tyre shipments for the first quarter (combined OE and replacement) were 3.7 per cent higher than Q1 2004, at 64 million units, but light truck shipments were down slightly (1.8 per cent) to 10.4 million units.