China's tire output up by 8.2% in 2013

China Tire Industry, 2014-2018 is a new market research publication announced by Reportstack.  China is the world's largest producer and exporter of tires. As Chinese economy develops rapidly in recent years, the domestic demand for tires increases while the export grows.

In 2013, the output volume of rubber tires was 965.04 million pieces in China, up by 8.2% YOY. The proportion of radial tires increased significantly after 10 years' development, which increased from 32% in 2000 to 90% in 2013. According to the Policies on Tire Industry issued by MIIT, the proportion of radial tires for passenger vehicles is expected to reach 100% in 2015 while the expected proportions for light truck tires and truck tires are 85% and 90% respectively.

In 2013, the output volume of radial tires was 583.758 million pieces in China, up by 26.77% YOY.

As the production capacity and output volume of tires increase in China, problems begin to emerge in the industry. The first problem is serious surplus of low-end production capacity and low concentration rate of the industry. The second is relative surplus in regional markets. With most production capacity concentrated in Shandong, homogeneous competition is intense. - Advertisement -

In 2013, the sales revenue of domestic tire manufacturers exceeded CNY 500 billion. The industry experienced downward trend in early 2013 and began to recover in the second half of the year. The indexes such as sales volume, export volume and profits all maintained steady growth in 2013. In 2013, the export volume of tires was 4.993 million tons, up by 13.33% YOY. In terms of quantity, the export volume was 440.13 million pieces, up by 6.43% YOY.

Many international tire giants began to enter China in the 1990s. Attracted by the low production costs and large market demand, many multinational tire enterprises consider China as an important tire production base. Over half of the domestic tire market is occupied by foreign-funded enterprises. Moreover, foreign-funded enterprises firmly occupy the domestic high-end market with the profit margins exceeding twice of those in domestic enterprises in China.

In China, international tire giants enjoy many advantages while most domestic tire enterprises are small in scale and weak in competence. According to the available data, the number of tire manufacturers exceeded 500 by the end of 2013. The mergers and acquisitions in Chinese tire industry is expected to accelerate in the next few years. It is predicted that many small and medium-sized tire enterprises will disappear, which either go bankrupt or to be acquired by large tire enterprises.

Chinese automobile industry develops rapidly after joining WTO, which promotes development of the automobile tire industry. The output volume of automobiles was 22.1168 million in China in 2013, up by 14.76% YOY. The sales volume was 21.9841 million, up by 13.87% YOY. China remained the world's largest producer and sales market of automobiles in 2009-2013. The automobile reserves kept increasing in China. The reserve of civil automobiles reached 137 million by the end of 2013, including 10.58 million three-wheeled automobiles and low-speed trucks. Increases in the output volume and reserve of automobiles stimulate the demand for automobile tires.

Although China remained the world's largest new automobile market since 2009, its automobile reserves per capita is still extremely low. In 2013, the automobile reserve per thousand people was approximately 100 in China, which was much lower than those in developed countries (600-800 per thousand people). The output volume and sales volume of automobiles is expected to remain above 5% in China in the next few years. As the output volume of new automobiles and the automobile reserves keep increasing in China, the annual growth rate of Chinese tire market is expected to exceed 15%. In Chinese automobile tire market, the demand for tire replacement is about twice of that for supporting tires and occupied over 2/3 of the tire market.

With integrated upstream and downstream tire industry chain, and lower labor costs than developed countries, Chinese tire industry still possesses great advantages over other developing countries in recent years. It is predicted that the domestic demand and export in Chinese tire industry will keep increasing in the next few years. Although Chinese tire industry is faced with many problems, the overall development exhibits huge development potential while Chinese government supports the development through policies.