Bridgestone stays top, but Michelin-Camso deal could shake up rankings

Akron, Ohio – After nearly a decade of “status quo” among the world’s largest tire makers, the pecking order at the top could be in for a shuffle in the coming year or two, depending on how well Group Michelin’s pending acquisition of OTR/industrial tire and wheel producer Camso Ltd. pans out.

Michelin’s $1.45 billion (€1.24 billion) offer to buy the former Camoplast Solideal could boost the French tire maker’s annual sales by $900 million or more, putting Bibendum in a position to challenge Bridgestone Corp.’s 10-year reign at the top of the global tire league.

For 2017, Bridgestone retained the title of No. 1 tire maker by roughly $800 million over Michelin — $24.4 billion versus $23.6 billion — as Bridgestone’s tire division reported 9.5% revenue growth versus 5% for Michelin.

Goodyear remained a solid No. 3 in the rankings at $14.3 billion and maintained a $3 billion gap between it and No. 4 Continental A.G., which reported growth in 2017 of nearly 6% versus Goodyear’s 1.4%.

While Goodyear’s revenue gap to Continental is solid, one research group — London-based Astutus Research — maintains Continental is on the verge of demoting Goodyear to No. 4 in terms of passenger tire capacity. Astutus contends that the scale of Conti’s capital spending on new capacity in the past few years — totaling close to 20 million units a year — has pulled the German company equal with Goodyear in the passenger/light truck tire realm.

One change did take place in the Top 10. Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. (SRI) slipped ahead of Italy’s Pirelli & C. SpA into fifth after Pirelli completed the divestment of its commercial tire business — now operating independently as Prometeon Tyre Group Srl and earning a spot of its own in the rankings (No. 32 with estimated sales of $900 million).

More details will be published in the ERJ European Tire Report 2018, published as a supplement in the September/October edition of European Rubber Journal magazine.