According to the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA), there were 203.2 million replacement passenger tire shipped in the United States last year, up 3.6% from 2006. In contrast, original equipment shipments were down 4%.
The passenger tire shipment data is just part of the information published in the RMA's "Preliminary Factbook 2008," which reports U.S. tire shipment activity for 2007. Passenger shipments by brand type, tread design and speed rating also are broken out.
Brand type: Major brands made up 74% of the total domestic replacement passenger tire shipments and 72% of the light truck tire shipments. Associate brands accounted for 12% in both segments, while private brands made up 14% and 16%, respectively.
Tread design: Nearly 88% of passenger OE shipments were all-season tires, while 2.3% were traction and snow treads (which include winter, all-terrain and traction treads). In the replacement segment, all-season tires made up 77.5% of the total; traction and snow treads accounted for an additional 4.0%.
Speed ratings: The RMA says more V-rated passenger tires (5.8 million) were shipped at OE than H-rated (5.4 million). Combined, V- and H-rated tires made up 24.2% of the OE shipments. At the replacement level, 31.6 million H-rated and 10.2 million V-rated tires were shipped, accounting for 20.5% of the total replacement passenger tire market. More Z-rated replacement tires (10.6 million) were shipped than V-rated tires.
Replacement LT-size tire shipments were up 1.5%, from 33.6 million units to 34 million units, according to RMA data. At the OE level, LT tire shipments were down 11.5%.
Replacement truck tire shipments were down in both the replacement (2.1%) and OE (31.9%) segments.
