Winter tires stretch slowly – Newspaper Kommersant No. 231 (7432) of 12/13/2022

Tire sales ahead of winter 2022 were 14% lower than a year earlier, amounting to 4.2 million units. The reason for the decline in sales was not a shortage – tire stocks, on the contrary, were actively growing. Analysts attribute the situation to the effect of a decrease in sales of new cars, which resulted in the absence of the need to buy a winter kit for them. In addition, against the backdrop of uncertainty due to the suspension of production in the Russian Federation of global brands, the sale of production and the ban on deliveries to the country, some car owners purchased winter tires in advance.

During the winter season of 2022, 4.2 million winter and all-season tires were sold in the Russian Federation, calculated in Chestny Znak, analyzing transactions from October 1 to November 30. The peak of sales on the eve of winter fell on the first ten days of November, while last year it was on the second ten days of November and the first ten days of December. Total tire sales decreased by 14%, while stocks by the beginning of the season were, on the contrary, 43% higher than a year ago, amounting to 33 million units (see Kommersant of October 6).

In Avtostat, the reason for the decrease in demand for new winter and all-season tires is the reduction in sales of new cars: they are sold as a set with summer tires, and winter tires are purchased separately. According to the agency, in January-November sales of new passenger cars in Russia fell by 58.8% to 569.5 thousand units (including unofficial deliveries). According to the AEB (using manufacturers’ data; excluding BMW, Mercedes, Chery and Exeed), the market for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles decreased by 60.9% to 548.9 thousand units.

“In many ways, this tire season has become, perhaps, the calmest over the past few years – there was neither a significant increase in prices, nor a rush of demand,” said Kirill Volkov, head of the Tires commodity group of the Central Regional Development Center (Chestny Sign operator).

According to the system, the average price of winter and all-season tires for the past year actually remained the same: an increase of 1% was recorded, to 5.9 thousand rubles. At the same time, before the start of the season, Drome recorded an increase in the weighted average cost of passenger tires by 46.5% compared to 2021, to 6.8 thousand rubles. Avito calculated that in October the purchase of a set of new non-studded winter tires cost car owners an average of 15.2 thousand rubles, studded tires – 12.1 thousand rubles. It was possible to buy used winter studded tires there for an average of 10.5 thousand rubles, non-studded tires – for an average of 11.8 thousand rubles. per set.

Mr. Volkov adds that this year the import of tires to the Russian Federation (the so-called parallel import) was simplified, which “helped support the assortment”. But the share of tires produced in the Russian Federation in sales this winter season increased by 5.2 percentage points, exceeding 68%.

Avito reported in October that the most popular brands this month were Nokian Tires (24% share), Bridgestone (10%), Triangle (9%), Cordiant (7%) and Yokohama (6%). Of these brands, only Triangle did not produce products in the Russian Federation, and Cordiant is a Russian brand at all. Nokian also continued production in the Russian Federation for quite a long time, although now the plant is in the process of being sold. That is, before this crisis, almost all popular brands produced products in the Russian Federation.

The suspension of tire production and restrictions on the export of products to the Russian Federation by the EU have become a trigger for the creation of stocks of products. Total stocks of tires have been holding at 80 million since spring. The annual demand of the Russian market for Chestnoy Znak is estimated at an average of 50–70 million tires. In recent years, the entire passenger car tire market has been around 30–40 million units per year. As of December 1, according to Chestny Znak, there were more than 64 million car tires in circulation, which covers the need of Russians for more than a year.

Sergey Udalov from Avtostat notes that against the backdrop of uncertainty, car owners were more active than in previous years in buying all-season tires in spring and summer, which also affected the result of the season.

Olga Nikitina