European Tire Market 2014 Trend Analysis

The British Imported Tyre Manufacturers Association recently released a report analyzing the market development of European car/light truck tires and all-steel radial tires. According to its forecast, in 2014, the European car/light truck tire market will only grow by 3%, and the all-steel radial truck market is expected to record a new high on the basis of a significant increase in the previous year.

The all-steel radial truck market is booming

According to relevant data, in 2013, a total of 308 million car/light truck tires were produced in 28 member states of the European Union, which was down from 310 million in 2012, including 239 million replacement markets and 68.83 million original matching markets. In the same period last year, the number of 241 million and 68.91 million were slightly lower.

In contrast, the market for all-steel radial tires has continued to rise. In 2013, the 28 member states of the European Union produced a total of 14,414,400 all-steel radial tires, including 10.933 million replacement markets and 3.48 million original supporting markets. In 2012, it produced a total of 13.527 million products, including 9.53 million replacement markets and 3.969 million matching products. Its overall market growth rate reached 6%, and the replacement tire market grew at a rate of 14%.

According to the analysis, compared with the tire market for passenger cars/light trucks, the reason for the rapid growth of the all-steel radial truck market in Europe is that the local economic situation has become better and economic activities have become more frequent, resulting in a substantial increase in road freight.

Among them, Germany is the largest market for replacement of tires and original accessory tyres for passenger cars/light trucks, which accounted for 24.4% of the EU market in the same year. At the same time, Germany is also the largest market for all-steel radial trucks in Europe. It accounted for the total sales in Europe in 2013. 19.5%.

China's tire market share is increasing

The four countries of the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Italy are the top four markets for Chinese tire exports, accounting for 41.4%, 12.3%, 11.9% and 10.9% of the total European market for Chinese passenger cars/light truck tires, respectively, accounting for China's total steel output. Cargo radial tires exported 25.1%, 17.7%, 10.8% and 9.8% of the total European market.

In 2013, these four countries accounted for over 75% of the European car/light truck tires' import market share, and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the European all-steel radial truck import market share.

From the perspective of import share, European car/light truck tire imports fell by 6% in 2013, but at the same time, imports of all-steel radial tires rose by 25% from the 16.1% of the entire European market to 20.2%. The increase in imports of Chinese tires is even more pronounced.

According to the Tire World Network, China’s all-steel radial tire imports share and market share in Europe are growing rapidly. The import amount has increased from 67.1% in 2012 to 77.9% in 2013, and has occupied the EU Steel truck radial tire market share of 14.7%. Although the market growth of China's car/light truck tires is less than 3%, it has accounted for 15.3% of the EU's total market for such products.

It is predicted that the import market for EU passenger car/light truck tires is still in a downturn, but in the context of the overall economic situation improving, its total market in 2014 will also increase by 3%.