Truck OE Tyre Sales Down 74%

European truck tyre OE sales reportedly fell an enormous 74 per cent in April, while replacement tyre volumes were down 44 per cent. The figures, which are sourced from leading tyre manufacturer Michelin, show that most global markets are affected (China aside). As far as truck tyre sales are concerned, the good news is that everyone’s best guess is that this segment cannot remain under this “particular pressure” forever and that there is still a good chance of improvement, or at least a slowing in the downward trend in time for the second half of 2009.

According to Deutsche Bank analysts, since sell out demand is not as bad, dealers destocking can’t last forever. In their words this means: “Soon sell in and sell out trend[s] will converge.” The analysts also qualify the particularly low demand as being down to the fact that April is a relatively small month. Their advice is to monitor June’s results closely, pointing out that this month accounts for significant amounts of manufacturer volume – 24 per cent in Michelin’s case.

The passenger car replacement markets in Europe and North America appear to have got off lightly by comparison – down 15 per cent and 14 per cent in April respectively. According to analysts at Morgan Stanley, once the number of selling days had been taken into account, sales fell roughly in the order of 8 per cent, which is broadly in line with the year-to-date trend.