Last week’s TIA OTR Conference, held at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, was a good time to network, catch up with industry friends and learn.
One of the most anticipated presentations at the conference is the annual rundown on OTR tire shipments. This year, Bruce Besancon, marketing director for Michelin North America’s OTR unit, did the honors.
By Besancon’s (and Michelin’s) definition, construction and quarry tires are typically size 14.00-24 to 27.00-49. Mining tires are anything 49 inches and greater. He outlined the well-known reasons for the OTR tire markets poor last few years, but heartened the audience by clearly illustrating what most also knew 2010 was a much better year.
For 2010, the entire OTR market OE and replacement, bias and radial totaled 3.06 million units, up 35.8% vs. 2009. From January 2008 through December 2010, the entire market was off 27.4%, he said.
The replacement components of 2010 shipments, Besancon said, totaled 2.13 million tires radial and bias up 21% vs. 2009. Again, though, the replacement market was still low; from January 2008 to the end of 2010, replacement shipments were down 20.5%.
On the OE side bias and replacement total 2010 units came in at 930,000 tires, up a whopping 99.2% compared to the year prior. Hit hardest in the economic downturn, OE shipments were down 40.6% for the period January 2008 through December 2010, he said.
Surface mining tires those 49-inch and greater sizes saw 245,900 tires shipped, up 23.5% vs. 2009 and up 18.4% since January 2008, he showed.