Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s segment operating income for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2012, was down nearly 25% from a year ago. However, in its North American Tire business unit, operating income was up 66.7%.
According to Goodyear, North American operating income was positively impacted by the following:
* improved price/mix of $87 million,
* $21 million of lower raw material costs, and
* approximately $20 million in savings related to the closure of its Union City, Tenn., tire plant, which it subsequently sold to Titan Tire Corp.
Here are the 3Q 2012 results for Goodyear in North America compared to 3Q 2011.
Sales: $2.4 billion, down 6%.
Tire units: 15.6 million, down 6%.
Operating income: $130 million, up 66.7%.
Operating margin: 5.4%, up from 3.1%.
Goodyear says the drop in sales reflect a 6% decrease in tire unit volume as well as lower pricing for chemical products.
Replacement tire shipments were down 10%, while original equipment unit volume increased 8%. Third-quarter revenue per tire increased 4% in 2012 compared to 2011, excluding the impact of foreign currency translation.
For the first nine months of the year, Goodyear North American Tire was up 1% in sales (to more than $7.3 billion), down 5.2% in tire unit sales (to 46.8 million), up 56% in operating income (to $398 million) and up in operating margin (from 3.5% to 5.4%).
For more information on Goodyear's 3Q 2012 financial results, click on "Goodyear makes money in 3Q, just not as much."
