European, US Tyre Sales Reveal Mixed Results

Sales of summer passenger car tyres throughout Europe in 2007 are said to have increased by 3 per cent over 2006 figures, which in turn were a 2.5 per cent increase over those recorded in 2005. The information supplied to T&A indicates that, Europe-wide, 120.7 million summer pcr tyres were sold last year. This increase was offset by the second consecutive decline in passenger car winter tyre sales. In 2007 only 35.5 million units were sold in the whole of Europe, a decrease of 9.58 per cent on 2006, when 38.9 million winter passenger car tyres were sold. That year the number of winter tyres sold also decreased, dropping by 13.4 per cent from a 2005 high.

While sales of light truck tyres remained static in 2007 at 12.3 million units, the medium/heavy truck sector showed a positive trend, with sales increasing by 4.44 per cent to 9.4 million units.

In the US sales of original equipment tyres continued to disappoint. Sales in the passenger car segment dropped 4.2 per cent to 45.7 million units, light truck tyre sales decreased by 12.5 per cent to 4.4 million units, and OE sales of medium truck tyres plummeted 35.0 per cent to 4.3 million units. Replacement tyre sales fared slowly better, with a 0.9 per cent increase registered in the passenger car segment, where 197.5 million tyres were sold. Sales of replacement light truck tyres were marginally down (-0.3 per cent) to 33.6 million units, and medium truck tyre sales decreased 1.1 per cent to 16.2 million.