Mining tire market rebounding after tough year
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CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio The North American mining tire industry is rebounding after being impacted negatively by the pandemic last year as mines cut back on operations. Overall, the decline was not as steep as expected. However there were certainly regional and commodity-based differences. OE demand suffered more significantly than replacement demand as most end-customers were not ordering new machines, said Shawn Rasey, director of global business development for earthmover tires for Continental Commercial Specialty Tires. In the pre-pandemic months, (tire) sales were relatively brisk for most markets. From March through May, there were some wide variations, with most dealerships and end-users working off of their existing inventories as much as possible, thus ordering just what they needed at any particular time, he said.
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AKRON Of the three OTR tire markets, construction took the biggest hit during the pandemic last year, but the industry seems to be recovering this year. Overall, there was a decrease in construction-related activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the OE and replacement tire market in 2020. However, all signs point to a better year in 2021, which is great news, said Paul Hawkins, senior vice president, aftermarket sales, North America, for Titan International Inc. The markets took a dip in 2020 mainly in Q2 and Q3 as COVID-related shutdowns and quarantines took place. There was increased activity moving into the second half of the year, and we see that trend continuing into 2021, added Bruce Besancon, vice president, OTR sales for Yokohama Tire Corp.
Last year at this time, we wrote that many experts in the tire industry were expecting the off-the-road (OTR) tire market to remain flat.In fact, we said it is "reasonable to believe that tire dealers will find the OTR market as rugged as the terrain the tires tend to navigate."Flat would have been…