Multinational tire giants raise their prices overseas

Mr. Zhu recently returned by driving with his family and plans to replace worn tires. When the car service shop staff reported for him the price of several brands of tires, he found that they were basically between 650-700 yuan, up by nearly 100 yuan more than when they were maintained a few months ago. Recently, Michelin and Bridgestone, the top multinational giants in the tire industry, announced that they will increase the price of their respective truck and bus tires by about 10% in September, which will be the second price increase this year.

It is understood that the demand for tire products in emerging markets such as China and India continues to expand, and the prices of fuels and raw materials have been rising all the time, which is the main reason why tire manufacturers of various brands have further raised their prices. The reporter recently learned from major tire manufacturers that since the prices of some products have been raised at the beginning of this year, the prices of most of the recent brand tires will remain at the current level.

Multinational giants have successively increased their prices. In the minds of many car owners, brands such as Michelin, Pirelli, Horse, Goodyear and so on have become the representatives of expensive tires. Therefore, their price adjustments have also been increasingly concerned by many mid- to high-class cars and luxury car owners. Although tire giants such as Michelin and Bridgestone announced that they will adjust prices for certain product lines, the reporter learned that the price adjustment is basically aimed at products in their overseas markets.

In July, Hankook Tire made a new round of price increase for its full range of products. At the same time, the reporter learned that in the second half of the year, the brand's prices in different regions may also fluctuate slightly. Goodyear Tire plans to increase the price of some products by 5% from August 1.

An insider of Michelin tires told reporters this week that the price adjustment was mainly aimed at increasing the price of card and passenger car tires in overseas markets by about 10%. In addition, Michelin has not planned to adjust prices for domestic products in the recent period. . At the same time, this person pointed out that at present, the prices of various patterns of Michelin tires are very different in the local market for various distributors. This is mainly due to the fact that products sold between dealers are not uniform, and products with the same pattern may exist. The difference between new and old models has led to mixed prices, and has even led some consumers to mistakenly believe that the prices of recent Michelin tires have risen.

Li Rui, Pirelli's tire market manager, also told reporters that at the beginning of the year, the company had made minor price increases for truck and car tire products due to rising raw material prices, but she has yet to hear that the company’s top executives will conduct a new one in the second half of the year. Wheel price adjustments.

Compared to other tire brands that have already completed the price increase action at the beginning of the year, the company's tires will increase the price of all products by 5% in May-June this year. The reporter learned from the brand's BestDrive flagship store that a mid- to high-end model with the original tire size specification of 215/60/R16 was taken as an example. Currently, the price of replacing one tire is 900 yuan (domestic) and 1,000 yuan (imports). ). If the size of a larger size model, the tire unit price will be expensive 300-400 yuan.

Local brands have the fastest price increase action. Local tire manufacturers are undoubtedly the fastest in this price increase. "The domestic tire manufacturers' price increase is mainly due to cost pressures. In contrast, foreign brands have relatively strong pressure-resistance in cost control. Therefore, the pace of increase is slower than that of local tire companies." South China Rubber Group Planning Minister Feng Jianping explained to reporters. Wanli Tire has slightly raised the prices of its products of various specifications from the end of last year and earlier this year, but the prices of products involving the family sedan series have not risen so far. Only the increase of all-steel large tires has exceeded 10%.

According to Feng Jianping, due to the particularly elusive price trend of natural rubber this year, it is difficult to predict whether the industry will experience another price adjustment in the second half of the year.

Market analysts pointed out that since the supply of natural rubber can not keep pace with the expansion of the automobile market in countries such as China and India, the current price has remained at nearly twice the level of the fourth quarter of 2009. For the whole industry is facing rising raw material prices, some manufacturers in the industry have formulated new research and development directions.

During this year's Bibiden challenge, Dong Kelan, senior vice president of communications and branding at the Michelin Group, interviewed by reporters on the impact of the current rising cost of raw materials, introduced the company's response plan: In the long term, Michelin will reduce tires Weight is the focus of R&D, just as vehicle manufacturers are also reducing the weight of vehicles to cope with rising raw material prices. Therefore, reducing the weight of tires to reduce the use of raw materials is the focus of Michelin's future research and development. Of course, this solution is based on the premise of ensuring an excellent balance of overall tire performance.

Second, Michelin is focusing on the development of new materials, replacing some of the current raw materials with new materials, such as natural rubber and synthetic rubber. At the same time, it will increase the efficiency of plant operations, which will also reduce the average cost of producing tires. As the most direct way to cope with rising prices of raw materials, price adjustment is inevitable. According to the rising prices of raw materials, Michelin will adjust the selling price of the products at different times.