Goodyear extends EMEA winter production shutdown

Akron, Ohio – Goodyear has decided to prolong its pre-planned winter production shutdown in Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) in response to the challenging environment of business in the region.

“This enables us to have an inventory level representative of market demand and offset costs,” said Goodyear in a written statement to ERJ 22 March.

The US tire maker did not provide further details about the volume of the production cut, but in her latest financial report statement CFO Christiana Zamarro said the volume will be similar to that of the final quarter of 2022.

“We anticipate our first quarter 2023 results will be negatively impacted by our reduced production levels in the fourth quarter of 2022 of approximately 3.5 million tire units,” she said 8 Feb.

“We also plan to reduce our production levels in the first quarter of 2023 by the same number of units as the fourth quarter of 2022,” she added.

In its statement to ERJ, Goodyear said 2022 presented “a very challenging operating environment for the tire industry,” which the tire maker handled by “supply chain planning processes”.

The external environment, it went on to say, continues to be “very dynamic” and that the decision to prolong the shutdown was due to "the current economic downturn across EMEA and consequent softening of the market."

Goodyear reminded that the decision was based on market-backed data intelligence.

“It is important that Goodyear customers forecast their requirements adequately so that we can ensure they will be supplied according to their needs,” it concluded.