The message to shareholders from Titan International chief executive and chairman Maurice Taylor is not one gladly heard: A 20.0 per cent year-on-year fall in sales during the first quarter of this year has been matched by an 11 per cent decline in sales volumes, a decrease in gross sales and an adjusted net loss of US$9.2 million.
Although Continental says the economic environment in the first quarter of 2016 was as “difficult as expected,” the company reports making a good start to the year. In the three months to 31 March, the tyre maker and automotive supplier’s sales rose three per cent year-on-year to €9.85 billion, even though negative exchange-rate effects had reduced this sales growth by 2.1 percentage points. Adjusted EBIT climbed to €1.1 billion. At 11.3 per cent, the adjusted EBIT margin was higher than the previous year’s level of 10.6 per cent.
Cooper Tire & Rubber is, says chairman, chief executive officer and president Roy Armes, “off to a strong start in 2016” after reporting a 29.5 per cent increase in operating profit despite net sales being down 2.0 per cent in the first three months of the year. Operating margin rose from 10.6 per cent in Q1 2015 to 14.0 per cent in the quarter to 31 March 2016.
Hankook Tire has reported its first quarter 2016 financial results, and these show a 9.4 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated sales; these amounted to KRW 1.6 trillion (£975.4 million) in the three months to 31 March 2016. Operating profit rose 23.6 per cent to KRW 251.1 billion (£150.3 million).
Goodyear Tire & Rubber has released its results for the first three months of 2016. During the first quarter of the current financial year, the company achieved higher sales volumes compared with the same period a year earlier, however sales revenues were slightly lower. Operating income and margin was higher, while a number of one-off occurrences impacted upon net income.
Net sales at Michelin rose 0.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2016 to €5.1 billion, pushed up by a 4.3 per cent rise in passenger car and light truck tyre sales, which more than offset the 3.0 per cent decline in truck tyre sales and 4.2 per cent drop in sales within the company’s specialty business.
Although Pirelli’s revenues grew 4.8 per cent in 2015 and were above the year’s target of €6.25 billion, problems in Venezuela and other issues took their toll on the company’s bottom line. The tyre maker’s revenue for the 2015 financial year amounted to €6.31 billion. Price increases, higher replacement market sales and product mix more than compensated for the 1.6 per cent decline in volumes, a reduction that mainly came from emerging markets and the company’s industrial business.
Singapore’s Stamford Tyres Corporation Ltd has reported a 32 per cent year-on-year increase in profit before tax for the third quarter of its 2016 financial year. The company’s profits in the three-month period ending 31 January 2016 amounted to S$1.6 million (£814,000), up from $1.2 million a year earlier. This rise in profit was achieved despite a 20 per cent drop in total group revenue to $60.3 million (£30.7 million). The quarter gross profit margin increased from 21.8 per cent to 25.2 per cent.
Bridgestone Corporation has reported net sales of ¥3,790.2 billion (£23.3 billion) in the 2015 financial year, a 3.2 per cent increase on the previous year’s result. Boosted by price mix, foreign exchange gains and favourable prices for raw materials, operating income climbed 8.2 per cent to ¥517.2 billion (£3.2 billion), however net income decreased 5.4 per cent year-on-year to ¥284.2 billion (£1.7 billion).
Although Yokohama Rubber clocked up a fourth consecutive year of record sales in 2015, operating income and net income declined year-on-year as falling vehicle production affected the company’s original equipment business in Japan and both escalating price competition and a mild winter hit the country’s replacement market business. Yokohama’s net sales rose 0.7 per cent to 629.9 billion yen (£3.9 billion) in 2015, while operating income declined 7.7 per cent to 54.5 billion yen (£334.6 million) and net income dropped 10.4 per cent to 36.3 billion yen (£222.9 million).
In the three months to 31 December 2015 – the third quarter of its 2015-16 financial year – Apollo Tyres achieved sales of Rs 29.29 billion (£298.0 million), 3.7 per cent less than a year earlier. Third quarter EBITDA stood at Rs 5.12 billion (£52.1 million), up 2.0 per cent year-on-year, while net profit rose 51.6 per cent to at Rs 2.79 billion (£28.4 million).
A one-time pre-tax charge of US$646 million linked to the deconsolidation of its Venezuelan subsidiary’s financial statements dragged Goodyear Tire & Rubber into the red in the fourth quarter of 2015. The tyre maker recorded a GAAP basis net loss of $380 million during the three months to 31 December 2015, a far cry from the $2.1 billion net income achieved a year earlier. Goodyear calculates that excluding certain significant items, most notably the abovementioned deconsolidation, adjusted net income came to $257 million, or $0.93 per share.
JK Tyre & Industries Ltd has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,106.4 million (£11.3 million) for the quarter ending 31 December 2015, a 20.5 per cent increase on the consolidated net profit achieved a year earlier. Total income for the three-month period was down 12.0 per cent year-on-year, to Rs 16,207.5 million (£164.9 million).
Hankook Tire has reported fourth quarter 2015 sales of KRW 1.61 trillion (£945.3 million), a decrease of 0.9 per cent compared with the fourth quarter a year earlier, and a 2.5 per cent year-on-year decline in operating profit, which amounted to KRW 238.3 billion (£139.9 million) in the final quarter of last year. The tyre maker shares that sales of its ultra-high performance (UHP) tyre segment grew 6.4 per cent year-on-year and now account for 33 per cent of the company’s overall revenue.
India’s largest tyre maker, MRF Ltd, has announced its unaudited standalone results for the quarter ending 31 December 2015. The company reports total income of Rs 33786.3 million (£349.9 million) for the period, 2.9 per cent less than the October to December 2014 quarter. Net profit stood at Rs 3881.5 million (£40.2 million) for the quarter, 20.0 per cent higher than a year earlier.
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