Replacement and original equipment passenger tire shipments in the United States were down 3.4% in July compared to the same month last year, according to the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA). That's the seventh consecutive month that total passenger tire shipments were down year-to-year.
Earlier this year, the RMA predicted that this market segment will increase by close to 1% in the final six months compared to the last six months of 2005.
Through the first six months, total passenger tire shipments were down 5.9%.
Here is the comparative P-metric tire shipment breakdown by segment for July 2006:
Replacement: down 2.6%, from 15.1 million to 14.7 million units.
OE: down 8%, from 2.9 million to 2.7 million units.
Compared to 2004, replacement and OE passenger tire shipments were down 8.1%.
Overall tire shipments (passenger, light truck and medium/heavy truck) were down 3.3% in July versus the same period last year. Replacement shipments were down 2.6% to 22.2 million units, while OE units were down 7.1% to 3.5 million units.
