Bridgestone Expecting Deflated PCR Sales in North America

Declining sales of new cars in North America is expected to be reflected in lower passenger car tyre sales, says Bridgestone. The tyre major expects North America sales in this segment to fall 5 per cent this year. Company CFO Koki Takahashi added that the company expects OE tyre sales in North America to fall 14 per cent in 2008 and those in Europe to fall 3 per cent.

“We now expect our total tyre output at 1.96 million tonnes this year, having downgraded from an initial estimate of 2 million tonnes at the beginning of this year,” Takahashi said at a news conference. “That is mainly because of lower-than-expected sales in North America, where we now expect 620,000 tonnes of tyre output, instead of 640,000 tonnes at the beginning of the year.”

This downward revised estimate is still higher than Bridgestone’s total 2007 output of 1.87 million tonnes. Of last year’s total, tyre output in Japan totalled 650,000 tonnes, followed by 590,000 tonnes in North America and 220,000 tonnes in Europe.