Pirelli capacity enough to support demand 'in coming years'

Milan, Italy – Pirelli & C. SpA expects the capacity and utilisation rates at its factories to support tire demand over the next few years, according to general manager operations Andrea Casaluci.

“We have a 90% of global saturation, out of which 95% in the high value, said Casaluci in a second quarter earnings call 27 July.

“There is all the necessary capacity in our plants to catch all the demand opportunity for the coming years,” he added.

According to Casaluci, at least 10% of Pirelli’s capacity in ‘high value’ large rim-sized tires – or roughly 3 million units - is used to produce standard tires.

“This is the way we always keep the spare capacity to catch in advance the sales growth,” he added.

The Pirelli official went on to explain that with 95% of its ‘high value’ capacity saturated, the tire maker still has “5% spare non-used, plus 10% used for standard.”

In terms of CapEx in 2024, Casaluci said the tire maker did not have numbers to communicate, but noted that Pirelli will target to “maintain a ratio of around 6% on sales”.

The “well-balanced target”, he said, will see 50% spending on technological upgrade, mix improvement and digitisation of factories.

For the remaining half, 25% is allocated capacity increases in high value and 25% to business continuity.