BRUSSELS — Shipments of consumer and commercial replacement tires in Europe declined during the third quarter of 2022, signaling a "probable market reversal" after a period of recovery seen since last year, according to the latest data from the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers' Association (ETRMA).
Commenting on the figures, ETRMA Secretary General Fazilet Cinaralp said the industry had observed a "slowdown in demand" over the recent months.
The downturn, she said, added to existing challenges around a "massive increase of costs," as well as strains on the supply of raw materials, energy, logistics and labor.
"If the inflationary trend and supply tensions persist, we can fear a very difficult year-end 2022 and year 2023," the ETRMA leader concluded.
Replacement consumer tire volumes in the July-August period fell 9% year-on-year to 58 million units. Within the consumer tire segment, summer tires declined the most, at 19%, followed by winter tires at 7% and all-season tires at 5%, the ETRMA said.
In the first nine months of 2022, volumes remained positive at 1.3% with 175.9 million units shipped, helped by a 14% overall improvement in all-season tires over the first three quarters.
Replacement market shipments of truck and bus tires declined 8.7% in the quarter versus the year-ago period to 3.26 million units, but increased 3.6% through the first nine months of the year to 10.5 million units.
The farm tire segment saw the sharpest decline during the third quarter, dropping 28.2% drop to 191,000 units, contributing to an 18.6% drop to 790,000 units for the year-to-date through September.
Shipments of two-wheeler tires declined 5.6% to 2.06 million units in the quarter; Year-to-date shipments were up 2.4% to 8.44 million units.
