Top 10 trends in the future of tire industry

Column:Industry information Time:2012-12-28
Trend one: "green tire" industrialization
Trend 2: China to introduce tire labeling Law

Trend one: "green tire" industrialization

Energy saving, environmental protection, low carbon, is becoming the tire industry at home and abroad widely concerned about the theme. Domestic tire enterprises have reached a consensus to comprehensively promote the development of China's green tire industrialization from the aspects of raw materials, technology and product standards, and strive to achieve the industrialization of "green tire" at the end of the "12th Five-Year Plan". The specific target is: about half of radial tire production enterprises have the ability to produce "green tires", a quarter of enterprises' "green tires" output exceeds the output of ordinary radial tires.

Trend 2: China to introduce tire labeling Law

The United States, Japan, the European Union and South Korea have all implemented mandatory tire labeling laws, and Brazil's is in the pipeline. Shall be formulated by the China rubber industry association of "industrialization of green tire solution and green tire self-discipline standard", will be introduced at the beginning of next year, the association director, national ministry of rubber association, will be to set up the topic, to do the "green tyre" industrialization of research, self-discipline standard is only the first step, the final purpose is to push China to form a tire "label", in line with international standards.

Trend three: Tire factories favor high automation

Tyre manufacturing, like other manufacturing industries, needs more automation. Now the automation level of some tire enterprises has been very high, and some processes are even completely completed by machines. However, the automation level of some enterprises is still low. Waterman, chairman of equipment manufacturer VIM, said recently that higher automation is needed in tire production to minimize the impact of operators on the final product. The future development direction of tire factories is high automation, so as to improve the manufacturing level.

Trend 4: Local mergers and acquisitions speed up

In recent years, most of the merger and reorganization cases are local enterprises being acquired or controlled by multinational companies, while the case of mergers and acquisitions among domestic enterprises is rare. On July 10, Cailun announced that it intends to acquire 100% of Shenyang Heping Radial Tire Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and 49% of Shandong Jinyu Industrial Co., LTD. Round this move, open domestic tire enterprise merger precedent, the future situation or will be changed. Industry analysis said that low-end overcapacity has seriously troubled the domestic tire industry, mergers and reorganization between enterprises is imminent.

Trend 5: Tyre manufacturers publish retail prices

Unlike auto makers, which offer price guidance, tire makers have been reluctant to disclose the price of their tires, which is bad for consumers to understand the price range. That is changing, as Bridgestone North America recently began publishing its suggested retail prices on the Bridgestone and Firestone websites. Michelin has promised to meet customer expectations by the end of 2012 by fully disclosing the suggested retail prices for passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States. Continental North America said it was reviewing the matter. All the signs indicate that in the future, more tire manufacturers will choose open retail prices.

Trend six: the layout of domestic enterprises producing countries

The US tyre "safeguard case" has ended, but this year, trade friction cases against the Chinese tyre industry have become more frequent. In order to avoid trade barriers, while close to the origin of raw materials, Sailun shares, Hangzhou Zhongce, Linglong tire and other enterprises have built tire factories in Southeast Asia and other places. For tire enterprises, Southeast Asia, as the largest rubber raw material production base, provides unique geographical and price advantages for enterprises to transfer production, and is increasingly becoming the target area of "strategic transfer" of Chinese tire enterprises.

Trend 7: The transition from price war to brand war

China's tire enterprises generally small scale, competitive ability is not strong, especially the production technology and process compared with the international level there is still a big gap, therefore, promotion and disguised price reduction, has long been the domestic enterprises used to explore the market means. Up to now, more and more enterprises have realized that the price war is detrimental to themselves and the whole industry. They should strive to improve their technical level and product quality, and rely on brands to participate in market competition. Some enterprise bosses call for the promotion of brand awareness, give up the price war, is the road that Chinese tire enterprises should take. It is reported that the industry price war has been well controlled this year and is expected to continue to maintain this good momentum next year.

Trend eight: replacement tire will become the mainstream of the domestic market

Passenger cars and light trucks account for more than 80% of the total car ownership in China, which is also a decisive factor in the total demand for replacement tyres. Globally, in 2011, the proportion of tire replacement in Asian passenger cars and light trucks was only 56%, much less than 79% in Europe and the United States. In terms of heavy trucks with small ownership, the proportion of tire replacement in Asia was similar to that in Europe and the United States, with 78% and 76% respectively. In general, in the developed countries of Europe and the United States, the replacement tire has become the mainstream of market demand, the rapid growth of China's car ownership, will bring strong support for the replacement tire demand space, so the replacement tire market is more and more attention by enterprises, the future is likely to become the mainstream market of tires.

Trend nine: The tire market tends to be global

Today, the domestic tire market competition has become extremely fierce. On the one hand, China's tire products are exported to Europe, the United States, Japan and other more than 60 countries and regions; On the other hand, multinational tire companies continue to expand their investment in China and occupy more markets through technological and capital advantages. This makes the global supply and production, become a trend of tire industry development. According to the analysis, the globalization of production management has made the whole supply chain of the tire industry more international. At the same time, the participation of foreign enterprises has greatly improved the overall quality level of Chinese tire products

Trend ten: domestic winter fetal market heating up

Many countries, such as the United States and Europe, clearly stipulate that cars must change winter tires in winter, but there is no relevant law in China to make it mandatory. The original tires of domestic cars are basically four seasons tires, and the owners need to spend money to replace winter tires. Various factors lead to the "difficult" life of domestic winter tires. This situation may change, tire companies recently announced that their global SUV winter tires accounted for 34%. It is expected that in the future, the fastest growth in China will be the winter tire market, especially the Chinese people's concept of car maintenance is gradually changing, the domestic winter tire market demand potential is huge.