Japan’s Bridgestone Corp. is the world’s largest tire maker by sales for the fifth straight year, according to Rubber & Plastics News‘ annual ranking of the world’s tire manufacturers.
The tire manufacturer outdistanced No. 2 Michelin despite meager growth in 2012.
Bridgestone’s estimated tire manufacturing-related sales of $28.6 billion put the company more than $2 billion ahead of Michelin and nearly $9.5 billion in front of No. 3 Goodyear.
Further down the list, Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. slipped past Italy’s Pirelli & C. S.p.A. into fifth by a slim margin—$7.76 billion to $7.63 billion—aided by the difference in the dollar/yen and dollar/euro exchange rates throughout 2012.
Sumitomo’s sales in yen grew 4.8 percent over 2011 while Pirelli’s in euros advanced 7.7 percent. However, the dollar/euro exchange rate moved 10 percent while the yen/dollar rate essentially was unchanged.
Sumitomo returns to the No. 5 ranking it held for several years prior to 2002, when its sales dipped following the sale in 1999 of majority ownership of its Dunlop-related assets in North America and Europe to Goodyear.
Tire manufacturers are ranked based on their revenue from the sale of tires, excluding sales of non-tire products, including auto-service-related revenue at company-owned retail stores, sales of steel cord, synthetic rubber or carbon black to third parties, etc.
Bridgestone and Michelin, for example, report millions of dollars in revenue from their respective captive retail networks.
The U.S. dollar-denominated sales figures are based on average annual currency exchange figures, to avoid unusually high or low exchange rates at year-end.
Likewise, South Korea’s Hankook Tire Co. Inc. edged past Japan’s Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. for the No. 7 spot on the list, $6.26 billion to $5.57 billion. Hankook reported 8.3-percent higher sales in 2012 vs. Yokohama’s 0.6-percent drop in revenue.
Continental A.G. retained the No. 4 spot at $10.9 billion, while Taiwan’s Maxxis International/Cheng Shin Rubber Co. Ltd. and China’s Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Ltd. kept their Nos. 9 and 10 rankings with sales of $4.63 billion and $4.56 billion, respectively.
Overall, the estimated value of tire sales worldwide slipped slightly from 2011 to $187.5 billion. Bridgestone’s share is 15.2 percent, Michelin’s 14 percent and Goodyear’s 10 percent.
Collectively the top 10 tire companies account for nearly 65 percent of the world’s tire sales, based onRubber & Plastic News’ numbers.
Apollo Tyres’ pending $2.5 billion acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. will create what should become the No. 7 tire maker in the future, based on their 2012 sales of $2.35 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively.
Among the more notable movers in the Top 25 are India’s MRF Ltd. and Titan International Inc. of the U.S.
MRF moved up three spots to 14th on the strength of a 23 percent rise in sales. Off-the-road and farm tire and wheel specialist Titan International Inc. jumped five rungs to 22nd on the strength of new sales derived from its acquisitions last year of Titan Europe and Australia’s Planet Corp. Group and Goodyear’s farm tire business in Latin America in 2011.
Among firms with joint ventures or affiliations in the Top 75, Singapore-based Chinese maker Giti Tire Pte. Ltd.—ranked No. 15 on its own, with sales of $2.7 billion—would be 12th if sales of Indonesia’s P.T. Gajah Tunggal TBK were added. Giti Tire, through an affiliated company, Denham Pte. Ltd., owns 49.7 percent of Gajah Tunggal’s stock.
Michelin, which has an off-take production agreement with Gajah Tunggal, owns 10 percent of the Jakarta-based manufacturer. Roughly 12 percent of Gajah Tunggal’s $1.24 billion in sales last year, or about $150 million, were for Michelin.
Likewise, Bridgestone’s sales scope is enlarged by two minority holdings: a 43-percent ownership stake in Turkey’s BRISA/Bridgestone-Sabanci Tire Mfg. (No. 37 with 2012 sales of $791.6 million) and a 19-percent stake in Finland’s Nokian Tyres P.L.C. (No. 18 with $1.87 billion in sales).
The plateauing of the global sales number is in contrast with 20-percent-plus growth recorded the past two years.
New to the rankings this year is Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd., the manufacturing arm of Sentaida Group. Returning to the ranking after a year’s absence is Guangzhou Pearl River Rubber Tyre Ltd.
Dropping out of the ranking were Sri Lanka’s Loadstar Pvt. Ltd. and India’s Govind Rubber Ltd.
Source: Rubber News
