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RUSSIA
Optimism in Russian Retread Market
Major players are carefully revising their forecasts for the prospects of the development of the Russian market for retreaded tyres this year on the back of an unexpected improvement in the country’s economy and strengthening of the
Russian market.
The crisis also continues to hamper the prospects of the haulage industry, which is tightly connected with the markets for large-sized tyres and radial tyres. This is very important primarily
A positive attitude has returned to the Russian retread sector
exchange rate of the Russian ruble. Long-term projections at the same time remain rather vague, as car sales, after falling in 2014, continued to be low, which has already made a number of carmakers including GM leave the
because this is the target area for the domestic retreading plants of Michelin and number of other large producers. The volume of automotive freight traffic last year dropped by 4 per cent, says the official report of the Russian State
Statistical Service. At the same time the sales of goods-carrying vehicles decreased by a quarter year-on-year. This tendency promises to bring more challenges to retreaded tyre producers than the overall problems of the Russian automotive market. It has already resulted in the bankruptcy of the Russian Avtotreading Company – one of the largest companies producing tyres for the haulage sector. Market experts believe that the situation will remain complicated this year.
“In the current environment cargo traffic has come under pressure due to several factors: a decrease in imports from Europe due to the geopolitical situation, cost reduction due to the difficult economic situation, the need to fight for market share in more severe conditions, as well as delays in payment of rendered services, due to the poor solvency of the Russian companies caused by sanctions and the crisis”, commented the head of the analytical department of “Golden