March tyre sales appear to stabilise at a low level

ERJ staff report (DS)

Paris - Michelin has updated its website with tyre market data for the month of March. The March figures show further universal declines in demand, with the sole exception of China where replacement car tyre sales were up slightly. However, the pace of decline appears to have stabilised.

In radial truck OE sales, every market in the world fell in the month of March and for the first three months, including China, which grew slightly last month. Europe's sharp decline has continued. The year so far saw a dramatic 62.4 percent decrease in European sales with no sign of short term recovery. March's sales fell also by 62.4 percent year on year, fractinoally better than the disastrous 64.2 percent seen in February. The appalling decline in North American truck OE sales has continued, with sales in the first three months down by 45.1 percent, not helped by a fall in March of 45.3 percent.

The Brazilian market's sharp slowdown continued in March. The year to date showed a fall of 32.9 percent, with the March figures down by 30.4percent. Japan was even worse, with sales in the year to date running 63.5 percent below the same period in 2008. March was even worse than February with a decline of 69.6 percent on the same month a year ago Only China showed any hint of recovery, with sales down by just 07 percent in the year to date with a 9.4 percent decline in the month of March.

Truck replacement tyres in March showed a similar picture, though marginally less bad. European truck tyre markets fell by 34.7 percent in the first three months, not helped by a 30.6 percent decline in March. North America fell by 25.3 percent in the year to March, and 22.8 percent in the year-on-year figure. In Brazil, a year-on-year fall of 25.0 percent slowed the three-month figure fractionally, to a decline of 'just' 27.5 percent. Japanese truck tyre sales fell sharply in March, down by 44.4 percent in the year to date and by 46.8 percent in the month of March. China showed only a modest fall, with a decline of just 3.1 percent in the year to March, made worse by a 11.6 percent decline in the most recent month.

As has been recorded elsewhere, the OE car business continues to struggle, though the figures in March are not as bad as the February numbers. Michelin said the total European OE market for car tyres in the three months to March 2008 was down by 38.6 percent, while the year-on-year figure for March dropped by 24.2 percent. The site gives only percentage changes, not absolute numbers. The North American market continued its downtrend, with the equivalent figures showing a decline of 52.0 percent for the three-month period and a year-on-year decrease in March of 38.2 percent.

China was the sole bright spot. OE demand in China was up by 3.1 percent in the year to date although down by 9.3 percent in March

In the replacement business, the decline in Europe eased somewhat. In March the three-month figures showed a fall of 10.6 percent while the one-month figure fell by just 2.6 percent. In North America, the replacement market fell by 11.8 percent in the first three months, eased somewhat by a decline in March of only 1.3 percent.

Chinese replacement sales were a rare bright spot, with the increase in the year to date running at 7.7 percent and the March figures i npositive territory, at 1.2 percent growth.