Reporting market trends for the month of June, Michelin notes that the current shortage of semiconductors strongly dampened recovery within the global automotive industry, which impacted upon sales of original equipment passenger vehicle and light truck tyres.
Although a mild improvement was seen within the truck, agricultural and two-wheeler tyre segments in the third quarter of 2020, the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) reports that the results for the first nine months of this year still show that the COVID-19 pandemic is “delivering worrying sales results for the industry.”
The second quarter of 2020 provided the worst quarterly sales results in recorded memory, the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) states. Publishing its members’ replacement tyre sales for the Covid-19 pandemic stricken quarter, ETRMA secretary general Fazilet Cinaralp said: “The tyre sector’s full recovery is still far away. For the moment, we can only hope for the market to stabilise in the second half of the year. Our outlook for 2020 remains bleak with a double-digit drop in sales expected across all segments.”
Fresh figures from the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) show the extent to which COVID-19 control measures have impacted upon Europe’s tyre markets. The year-on-year slowdown in tyre replacements and sales in the first quarter of 2020 has been “dramatic”, the ETRMA reports.
Figures recently published by the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers Association (ETRMA) show that its members produced almost 242 million tyres in all segments of the replacement market in 2019, two to three per cent fewer than the 248 million tyres produced a year earlier.
Sales of tyres produced by European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) members decreased year-on-year in almost every product category during 2019. The ETRMA describes the market last year as “weak”, and this is particularly the case for the original equipment segments.
Giti has previewed its forthcoming ultra-high performance flagship tyre for its leading GT Radial brand. Eventually replacing the GT Radial UHP1 and HPY, the GT Radial SportActive currently has eight 17 and 18 inch sizes in production at its Hefei, China plant, the manufacturer’s senior product marketing manager Fabio Pecci-Boriani told Tyrepress during the launch of the brand’s Savero SUV tyre in Barcelona. The manufacturer will also have a further “22 sizes in production by the end of the year”, he added, with 40-50 sizes in total available by June 2016. These sizes will include some suitable for high performance SUVs. The SportActive is a significant milestone for the company; it is the first to feature Giti’s “Optimal Casing Construction” (OCC) technology, with the project led by the company’s European research and development centre in Hanover, Germany.
Bridgestone Europe has appointed Timothy Manuel, currently general manager of channel strategy as director replacement sales in the company’s European Consumer Business Unit. Despite having taking on this new role, Manuel remains responsible for Consumer Business Unit channel strategy and the Motorcycle Business Unit at European level. Moving forward, his key focus is said to be the development of the company’s passenger car sales in Europe, working closely with the six different European regions.
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