BRIEFING: A review of the European tyre market

The European passenger car tyre market represents 33% of the world total of 994m tyres. Of this, total original equipment accounts for some 28%. The market is expected to grow steadily over the next five years at a rate, according to Michelin, of 2.6% per annum. The growth in the replacement market is predicted to be slightly higher than that in OE. The OE growth is mainly driven by Asia with Europe only growing at 1.5% pa. The replacement growth is fairly balanced throughout the world with the European figure at 3.3% pa.