A few days ago, TireWorld.com learned from domestic tire companies that since May, the operating rate of all-steel tires and bias tires has begun to decline.
Based on this, relevant people speculate that after June, the downstream market demand for tires will not strengthen, and the operating rate of domestic tire companies will continue to decline.
Macroeconomic and environmental protection policies affect operating rates
According to analysis, from the perspective of the domestic market, the macroeconomic environment has been sluggish, resulting in a continuous decrease in the volume of construction machinery and automobile logistics. This directly affects the order volume of tires from downstream industries.
At the same time, environmental protection policies in some areas have become stricter, and companies have been inspected frequently for environmental protection, which has led to a reduction in the number of small and medium-sized enterprises that are not technologically advanced.
Previously, industry insiders predicted that the domestic tire market would show a pick-up trend in the second quarter of this year.
The speculation is based on the fact that in March and April, the average operating rate of domestic all-steel tires remained above 70%, and the average operating rate of semi-steel tires reached more than 75%.
Many tire prices are "rising up and down"
At an industry conference held not long ago, industry insiders were generally optimistic about this year's tire market. Only Shen Jinrong, chairman of Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd., believes that the recovery of the Chinese tire market is just an illusion.
In his view, the increase in operating rates of domestic tire companies in the previous period is not a manifestation of the real market demand.
He even believes that this year, Chinese tire companies may face the biggest dilemma in history. This is regarded as alarmist by some people.
Correspondingly, this year's rubber prices have risen for a period of time at the beginning of the year, and there are obvious signs of a decline in the near future.
As a result, the tire price increase that some people expected did not appear on a large scale, and some tire prices even became "brightly rising and darkly falling."
Data show that since the beginning of this year, China's tire exports have increased slightly by 0.7% year-on-year and 4.1% month-on-month. However, exports to the United States fell 13% year-on-year and 7% month-on-month.
And China's all-steel tire exports will soon face the impact of the "double reverse" of the United States. According to Shen Jinrong's calculations, once the United States "double reverses", Chinese all-steel tire companies will reduce their operating rate by at least 5%.
TireWorld.com observed that as tire retailers continue to increase their inventory, the shipments of some tire companies have been affected to a certain extent.