Michelin Group boosted its year-over-year sales by 7.4% during the first quarter of 2023, despite a contraction in global tire demand.
The company achieved 6.9 billion euros in sales during the quarter.
During 1Q 2023, the passenger and light truck tire segments "contracted by 3%, impacted by replacement demand in Europe and North America," according to Michelin officials.
Meanwhile, commercial truck tire "markets outside China declined by 2%, as robust OE sales were more than off-set by slowing (replacement tire) demand."
Specifically, Michelin's consumer tire sales grew by 6.2% during the first three months of the year, but volumes declined by 6.7% versus the same period last year.
"Replacement tire sales declined, particularly in Europe, in a context of dealer restocking, penalizing sell-in demand," say Michelin officials, who add that more than a third of the volume drop stemmed from Michelin's termination of operations in Russia.
Michelin's commercial tire sales grew by 1.3% on a year-over-year basis during 1Q 2023.
The company's specialty tire business enjoyed a much larger year-over-year increase of 16.4%.
