Kumho Tire shares that its performance in the all-important European market has recently shown strong growth. First-quarter sales for 2023 were up 92% on those of the same period last year at €165 million, while the quarter-on-quarter figures rose by a solid 15%. Impressive as these results are, the company views them as “just the first stage” in a period of sustained investment which it anticipates will result in ongoing growth within the region.
Departing a profitable market isn’t for everyone: Pirelli & C. reports that Russia accounted for “about 3.5 per cent” of its global revenues of 1,699.7 million euros in the first quarter of 2023, which means the tyre maker Q1 2023 revenues in Russia amounted to approximately 59.5 million. Not a colossal sum when compared with total sales, but nonetheless more than Pirelli made in that market in the first quarters of the two previous years.
Favourable fourth quarter and financial year 2022-23 financial results for Apollo Tyres, with revenue growth across all regions amounting to 12% in the fourth quarter and 17% for the full year. The Board of Directors thus recommend a dividend pay-out of Rs 4.00 per equity share and a special dividend of Rs 0.50 per equity share.
Hankook Tire anticipates that tyres for electric vehicles will account for around 20% of its original equipment passenger car and light truck tyre deliveries in 2023. This figure represents a notable increase over prior years: EV tyres accounted for 11% of OEM car and light truck shipments in 2022 and just 5% in 2021.
Goodyear stock shot up ~30 per cent following an explosive letter recommending radical change at the tyremaker from 10-per-cent-shareholder Elliott Investment Management. At the time of going to press, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. shares were up trading at $14.81, up 30 per cent compared with five days ago, with most of that coming on 11 May 2023 when the shareholder letter was published.
Following the publication of an open letter from shareholder Elliot Investment Management suggesting radical changes at Goodyear, executives at the company’s Akron, Ohio headquarters have released a statement confirming that they are “reviewing Elliott’s recommendations” and “intend to meet with them to discuss their views in more detail.”
The specifics of Elliot Investment Management’s explosive open letter to the Goodyear board reveal that one of the company’s largest shareholders believes “Goodyear has underperformed by 90 per cent over the past five years and 143 per cent over the past ten years” relative to the S&P 400. And relative to proxy peers, key competitors and relevant indices such as the Dow Auto Parts Index, “the story of underperformance is similar”.
In 2022, Linglong Tire’s revenue was 17 billion yuan (approximately £1.94 billion; €2.24 billion). Within that, Linglong achieved a revenue of 16.73 billion yuan (about £1.91 billion; €2.2 billion) specifically from tyres. Linglong balanced its domestic and overseas businesses but the revenue brought in by domestic trade was slightly higher. The company’s tyre sales in China reached 8.55 billion yuan, and its export and overseas sales reached 8.18 billion yuan.
In April we took an in-depth look at the progress of the Goodyear-Cooper integration, roughly two years after the acquisition was announced (see ‘Mission “successfully completed”? The Goodyear-Cooper integration and its contradictions’, Tyres & Accessories, April 2023). Now, in parallel with the publication of the company’s first-quarter 2023 financial results, executives have sought to answer those questions with the publication of a “Cooper Tire Integration Update” on 4 May 2023. In short, the update states that “the combination has significantly strengthened [Goodyear’s] leadership position in the global tyre industry” and that the “results of the integration were better than expected when the deal closed in June 2021”. However, Goodyear has also been significantly loss-making for the last two quarters and admitted during the first-quarter 2023 results that it is being forced to review its burgeoning brand portfolio in light of its negative fiscal position.
Despite a first-quarter 2023 net loss of $101 million, down $197 million compared with $96 million of positive income 12 months ago, Goodyear executives tried to shine a positive light on the US-based tyremaker’s latest financial results. Volumes may have been 3.2 million units lower than the same period last year at 41.8 million units, but net sales grew 1 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2022 and 4 per cent excluding foreign currency effects. And Goodyear EMEA is back to breakeven, but that wasn’t enough to avoid talk of accelerated cost-cutting measures.
In 2022, Sailun’s revenue was 21.9 billion yuan (approximately £2.55 billion; €2.89 billion), a year-on-year increase of 21.69 per cent. Sailun became the first listed Chinese tyre company with revenue exceeding 20 billion yuan. At the same time, the company’s revenue in 2022 surpassed Linglong, becoming the number one listed tyre company in China. During the reporting period, Sailun produced 43.2078 million tyres, sold 43.903 million tyres, and realized a net profit of 1.33 billion yuan (about £150 million; €180 million).
Benefitting from “premium positioning” in Q1 2023 despite “weak markets” around the world, Michelin increased its consolidated sales 7.4% year-on-year, to 6.96 billion euros. Tyre volumes, on the other hand, were down 6.6%. Michelin confirms its 2023 full-year guidance.
Nokian Tyres has presented its first quarterly results since the company sold its Russian operations to Tatneft its resultant production gap. In short, first quarter 2023 net sales were 236.4 million euros down 26.8 per cent compare with 322.9 million euros during the same period last year. That meant an operating loss of 18.8 million euros compared with 21.5 million euros of operating profit in the first quarter of 2022.
Recently, Shanghai Huayi, the parent company of Double Coin, announced its operating data for 2022. In 2022, the revenue of Huayi’s tyre segment reached 10.02 billion yuan (approximately £1.175 billion; €1.338 billion), a year-on-year increase of 6.62 per cent. Regarding net profit, Huayi relies heavily on Huayi Group (Hong Kong), which is responsible for overseas business (especially the business of factories in Thailand). During the reporting period, Huayi Group (Hong Kong) achieved a net profit of 172 million yuan (about £20 million; €23 million). The Double Coin Tire Group, responsible for Huayi’s domestic tyre business in China, lost 26.4318 million yuan (about £3.1 million; €3.53 million).
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
Google Finance
Elliott Investment Management
Linglong
Goodyear
Sailun