Analysts target pessimistic on tire industry future

Sliding down ofChina’s auto industry has obviously effected on development ofChina’s tire industry, said an industrial expert in the interview with Tireworld’s journalists.

Jumping prices of natural rubber and synthetic rubber keptChina’s tire manufactures still making profit, however, with industrial competition getting fierce, tire price may be largely cut in the second half year of 2012, which will narrow tire manufacturers’ profit in the future, he said.

In current days,China’s tire production remained growing judging from the data, but production growth has been slowing down since 2012.

In July,Chinaproduced 78.97 million units of tires and 37.175 million units of radial tires in all, year-on-year up 5.5% and 12.5% respectively. But monthly growth during January and July is only 7.18%, far behind of 15.3% in the past three years.

Meanwhile,China’s tire export also faces bottleneck. In the first half year of 2012, China’s tire export slightly increased 3.3% compared to the same period in 2011, but of only 22 tire exporters kept growth, of other 20 declined. Radial tire export has the same situation. Export volume rose by 2% in the first half year of 2012, but of 22 radial tire exporters rose, of other 14 down, according to statistics from China Rubber Industry Association.

Middle-size and small-size tire manufacturers boosted their export via cutting prices, the expert said, but it couldn’t maintain anymore if natural rubber price rebounded in the second half year of 2012.

In that case, analysts are generally bearish onChina’s tire industry in the future.