Russia: Premium tyre makers bear brunt of 15% market decline

A total of 35.1 million tyres for all powered applications were sold in Russia in 2022, reports daily newspaper Kommersant. This figure represents a year-on-year decrease of 14.9 per cent that disproportionately weighed upon the premium tyre segment. Tyre makers based within the country produced 42.7 million tyres within the year.

Figures available to Kommersant indicate that the replacement market accounted for 19.1 million of the tyres sold in Russia last year, a figure 19.4 per cent lower than that for 2021. Passenger car tyres accounted for 78.5 per cent of all replacement market tyres sold, almost 15 million tyres; this is 3.3 per cent more passenger car tyres than sold in 2021, and the newspaper posits that motorists buying and hoarding tyres in anticipation of future shortages drove this increase.

Compared with 2021, prices for a set of tyres rose by three per cent over the entire year, but the average price for a passenger car tyre at the end of the year was up 20.5 per cent to 6,400 roubles (£68). The most popular tyres sold for below this average.

Optimistic OE shipments?

Kommersant reports that nearly 15 million tyres were delivered to OEMs, with almost 7 million of these being passenger car tyres and 5.5 million truck tyres. This total is only down 6.6 per cent year-on-year, a minor decrease when taking 2022 vehicle production figures into account. The newspaper at any rate raises its eyebrows at this information, commenting that when looking at car and truck production within the Russian Federation last year, it calculates that “more than 30 million tyres” might have gone into the aftermarket.

Exports down 18.2%

Tyre exports from the Russian Federation fell by 18.2 per cent year-on-year in 2022, to almost 12 million pieces. Out of this volume, almost 9.5 million were passenger car tyres and almost 2 million truck tyres. Shipments were most heavily concentrated in January 2022 prior to EU and US sanctions and then in April, July and October. Kommersant shares that Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade did not respond to its questions regarding the markets to which export tyres were sent.

The figures presented by Kommersant were based upon information by Russia’s Center for Research in Perspective Technologies and the National Scientific Competence Center.