Many tire OEMs have increased prices in CY-2021, ranging from 3-10% depending on type of tire and size. Higher commodity prices and increased ocean freight rates are being passed on to end users as OE profit margins compress.
The ultimate outcome of the pandemic and the strength of the economic recovery are driving many predictions on future pricing.
Reduced tire demand and a decrease in overall miles driven have caused tire manufacturing volume to decline in 2020, creating a downstream ripple effect softening commodity prices for natural rubber, but this may change in 2021.
Although prices for replacement tires increased 3% per unit per month in calendar-year 2019 compared to CY-2018, the per transaction tire costs were up less than 1% for fleets buying at pre-negotiated national account prices.
A fleet cost reduction program goes straight to the corporate bottom line. If a company operates at a 10% annual net profit margin, reducing annual fleet expenses by $100,000 is the equivalent of generating $1 million in sales. Although fleet managers manage hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars in corporate assets, only half are incentivized to achieve targeted performance goals. I advocate incentivization should be a universal best practice extended to all fleet managers.
For the past four years, tire costs have been stable. But new cost pressures have emerged in 2017, primarily with higher prices for commodities used to manufacture tires and the trend to larger diameter, more expensive, tires.
As a wear item, tires are a depreciating asset. Your job, as the fleet manager, is to slow the rate of depreciation. Replacement tires as a cost category are a fleet’s second-largest operating expense, exceeded only by fuel. By maximizing tire tread life, you lower per-mile costs, resulting in fewer premature removals and optimizing the condition of tire casings, allowing for multiple retreads.
Replacement tire prices for CY-2016 are flat because of less volatility in the global prices of commodities used to manufacture tires, namely oil, rubber, and steel. The forecast is for a continuation of price stability into CY-2017.
There are a variety of factors influencing tire costs, such as commodity prices and increased global demand; however, the industry-wide retail trend to larger diameter OE tire sizes is a key factor in driving up replacement tire prices in the past decade.
Tire industry experts foresee another round of tire price increases during calendar-year 2012. In the past, national account tire manufacturers have done their best to shield the fleet industry from price increases by holding prices for a 12-month period. Nowadays, there is concern that national account vendors will no longer be able to continue to absorb these cost increases.
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