Tire Recovery Strengthened in January

Paris — Michelin has updated its website with partial tyre market data for the month of January. The latest figures show continuing recovery.

The site gives only percentage changes, not absolute numbers.

Radial truck replacement sales are up in every market reported. This is the first time since the crisis that truck replacement sales have been so strong.

European replacement sales recovered for the third consecutive month. Year-on-year sales were up by 23.7 percent in January. This follows a fall of 19.8 percent in the twelve months to December 2009, but a rise of 20.1 percent in December and a 9.6 percent increase in November. Data for the North American market was not available.

In Brazil, January sales grew by 47.5 percent in comparison with a decline in 2009 of 13.4 percent.Japanese replacement sales grew by 4.4 percent, less robust than the 21.0 percent seen in December, but reversing the decline of 18.4 percent seen throughout 2009. China sales for January were not reported.

In the truck OE sector, Europe declined, but Brazil and Japan saw strong growth. Europe saw a decline of 21.8 percent, while Brazil grew by +43.2 percent and Japan grew by a remarkable +60.4 percent.

The OE car business continues to recover strongly. Michelin said the total European OE market for car tyres in January was up by 38.7 percent compared to last January . The North American market more than doubled seeing a 109.9 percent increase, though this is based on a huge decline a year ago when sales were don by two-thirds on the 2008 figure.

Michelin did not report the European replacement figure, but in North America, the replacement market grew by just 0.2 percent.