New ETRMA stats show European retread recovery in 2010

In its recently released 2011 ‘European Tyre & Rubber Industry’ statistics, the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers Association states that retreading managed to stage an almost complete recovery in Europe during 2010. Quoting Europool figures, the ETRMA shares that after experiencing a 21 per cent decrease within the region from 2007 to 2009, with unit sales dropping from 5,800,000 to 4,561,000 during this time, in 2010 retread unit sales rose 22.9 per cent year-on-year to 5,605,000. The number of retreads sold within Europe last year is thus only 3.3 per cent lower than 2007 levels, the ETRMA notes.

New tyre production also faired well in the EU27 and Turkey region, reaching 4.5 million tonnes in 2010. This figure represents a 25 per cent growth on 2009 production; however it remains 11.7 per cent lower than figures for 2007. Replacement market tyre sales reached 289 million units, an increase of 11 per cent on 2009 and five per cent above the 2007 figure; of this total, passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyre sales accounted for 277.4 million units, a ten per cent rise on the previous year and six per cent higher than 2007, while medium and heavy commercial vehicle tyre sales reached 11.6 million units, up 13 per cent on 2009 yet down 17 per cent on 2007. Tyre exports for the entire EU amounted to 4.0 billion euros in 2010, a 33.3 per cent year-on-year increase, while imports rose 19.1 per cent to 5.0 billion euros.

The association stated that total global tyre sales in 2010 reached US$152.0 billion, growth of nearly 20 per cent on 2009 figures. Of this amount, $100.1 billion worth of sales is said to have been made by the global top ten tyre makers, which gives these major players a 66 per cent share of the world tyre market.