Bridgestone Russian plant spells end of supply/demand gap

Following the news that Bridgestone is investing in the construction of a passenger car tyre plant in Russia, market analysts have shared various views on the impact this move will have on the local market. For its part, Deutsche Bank took the opportunity to situate the news in the context of wider domestic market development.

In doing so came out with a more optimistic medium to long term view of the situation than some earlier reports that focused on short and medium term demand problems in the wider European area and fluctuating car demand in Russia. According to these analysts, 22 million A+B segment (premium and upper medium tyres) were sold in Russia in 2012. Their view is that the market should reach 34 million in 2015. By this point production capacity in the country is expected to reach 35 million compared with 17 million in 2012 ending an era of unbalance between supply and demand.