RMA: Tread Shipments Up

(Akron/Tire Review) RMA says that shipments of tread rubber will grow in 2005, producing some 17 million retreaded tyres, the third consecutive year that tread stock shipments have increased. While overall economic growth is expected to moderate in 2005, RMA said that strong demand for OTR tyres will add 2.3 per cent in total tread rubber shipments for the year, up from 2004’s 1.5 per cent growth.

Continued strength in construction, increases in the number of trucks, expansion in the manufacturing sector and positive freight trends will sustain growth through 2007 at an annualised rate of 1.7 per cent. The RMA report did not include allowances for any additional tyre use as a result of reconstruction work in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.