Toyo Tire bolstered in North America by Serbia plant

Mike Graber, president and CEO of Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp., said the supply chain bottlenecks hampering business the last three years is subsiding, and boosted production from Serbia is serving them well this year.

It's been a slower start this year than what we saw in 2021 and 2022. The business cycles are returning to pre-pandemic norms, and the impacts of higher interest rates are taking hold. However, we are growing our share in a sluggish market, which is a big positive for us.

The bottlenecks we saw in 2020-22 have largely been eliminated. Tires are arriving from Asia and Europe on schedule and as expected. Raw material prices have stabilized. These are good factors for the North American market.

It remains to be seen. We hope to avoid raising prices this year as the trends are more predictable on raw materials, freight and labor. At this time, we don't expect to have a price increase in 2023, but we constantly assess the market situation.

We have been receiving tires from Serbia throughout the year. The tires have been enthusiastically received by our dealers; the quality of the product and performance is very high. We expect to receive about 25% of our overall volume in the U.S. from Serbia when at full capacity, so we are thrilled with the initial results.

The Celsius II is off to a great start as the all-weather product category continues to evolve to provide convenience and year-round performance. The positive reviews for the Celsius II have highlighted the wet performance and refined road manners.

We have experienced unique winter conditions the past few years, with record snowfall in the West and extreme highs and lows in the East. These unusual weather patterns have helped introduce the benefits of the Celsius product line to customers throughout the U.S. that are looking for all-season tires with improved winter traction.

The return to normalcy after the three Covid years. We are in a people business and it is great to see people face to face again.

Toyo is fully committed to sustainability and ESG initiatives throughout the world. We want to be leaders in sustainable procurement of raw materials all the way through low-environmental impact manufacturing processes and technology. We are a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and intend to reduce 2019 level carbon emissions 46% by 2030.