In 2011, you’ll recall, we spent a LOT of time writing about tire price increase. 5% here and 10% there with 7% sprinkled in for good measure. All told, we talked about prices increase at least 100 times because we set some kind of a record in 2011 with more than 100 unique price increases in Canada and the U.S.
2012 turned out to be a really, really, really boring year in comparison. There were just 19 total unique price increases for U.S. and Canada last year – all of them taking effect between Jan. 1 and July 1.
No wonder you barely remember.
So what changed to calm the Wild West Show tire pricing had become in North America? Raw material costs stabilized somewhat, but they hardly fell through the floor. Energy prices? No, it was a pretty flat 2012, and certainly not as bad as some “experts” predicted back in December 2011.
Methinks the rate of price increases slowing was more due to customers – consumer and commercial – pushing back, either by complaining loudly or by (the horror!) just not buying tires. Certainly, the potential (now realized) that the added tariff on China-made and imported consumer tires would drop or disappear kept dealer orders down, backing up tiremaker warehouses and pressuring pricing.
What we know right now is that many inventory-heavy tiremakers are dropping prices. Heard another 8% drop by a major just the other day.
We know that will come to an end, even though we won’t return to “normal” any time soon. But let’s enjoy it while we can.
* * * * * * *
You may have heard this story over the holidays, but it is worth recounting….just because it’s so cool.
On Dec. 31, Ed Rueschman closed out a 46-year career with Goodyear, taking a buyout and heading into retirement at age 65. Nothing really exceptional about that; he was a USW member in good standing, and drove a pickup and delivery truck for the tiremaker, tracking all over the northeast Oho region.
Like many his age, he took the job just weeks after graduating from high school. He wanted to be a truck driver, but had no interest in Goodyear, having watched his father work production shifts at Goodyear’s massive Akron plants.
But at his dad’s urging, he applied and got a factory job. He and his dad went to work together for years, before his father retired in 1977. His dad – John L. Rueschman, started at Goodyear in 1941, and put in 36 good years before he retired.
Grandpa John F. Rueschman helped his son become a Wingfoot, where he worked from 1915 to 1948 – a 43-year career.
And his father, Ed Hippensteal started it all, having hired in at Goodyear in 1898. In fact, great-grandfather Ed was one of the so-called “Old Guard” of Goodyear employees, personally hired by Goodyear co-founder F.A. Seiberling, and commemorated on a special plaque at the company’s headquarters.
Four generations covering 163 employment years. All from one family. Ed Rueschman was not only one of the last of his kind, he was the last of his family to work for Goodyear.
* * * * * * *
According to a recent story on mysanantinio.com, Texans has themselves one heapin’ awful scrap tire problem.
Everything in Texas is big (including exaggerations), but the estimate of more than 14 million of them lying in piles around the state – illegally, mind you – is alarming. Though I’m not sure how they arrived at that number because, as the story admits, “many” of the tires have been shredded.
But according to the website, there were some 1,200 complains from citizens about the tire (and shred) piles. There’s five million near Odessa, and two million near San Antonio, and about a million near Houston.
Those complaints have been dutifully noted by authorities, and less than 500 citations were issued, but not a single tire or shred has moved.
Everyone quoted in the story offers the usual rote about fires and mosquitoes and West Nile Virus, and all of the environmental dangers. But no one is dealing with the quantity of tires dotting the countryside.
Why? No money, apparently, and no plan to deal with them.
