Continental AG’s tire sales fell slightly during the second quarter, but its tire division also achieved the strongest adjusted EBIT margin across any of the company’s sectors.
Consolidated company-wide sales totaled $11.2 billion, down 4% for the same period a year ago. Tire sales represented roughly one-third of that total, or $3.9 billion in the quarter.
The results were posted as Continental plans to sell of its automotive group, which the company said will go public as an independent company on September 18, 2025. In the second quarter, the automotive group’s results improved “significantly” in both year-over-year comparisons and when compared against the start of 2025.
“We’ve worked hard to make our group sectors more resilient and more agile. In a highly volatile economic environment, this hard work is now paying off. As a result, the Automotive group sector has positive momentum ahead of its spin-off in September,” said Continental CEO Nikolai Setzer.
Once the spin-off of the automotive business is complete, Continental expects to follow suit and spin off its ContiTech business, which specializes in material solutions, in 2026.
Net income for the company totaled $592 million in the quarter, a 66% increase from the $326 million reported in the same quarter in 2024.
Continental’s tire report
Though tire sales slipped slightly from that of the second quarter in 2024, Continental praised the sector for its strong EBIT margin. At 12%, it was down from the 14.7% recorded in the same period a year ago. Continental attributes that drop to “U.S. tariff increases, exchange-rate effects and positive catch-up effects in the second quarter of last year.”
Continental also noted its strong presence in the ultra-high performance tire market.
“UHP tires are technologically sophisticated, available in sizes form 18 inches and designed for safe and dynamic driving at high speeds. Between 2019 and 2024, Continental increased sales of these tires in the passenger car and light truck segment by around 15 percentage points worldwide. Over the same period, the share of sales of UHP tires for Continental brands rose from 38 to 52 percent, and to 60 percent for the core Continental brand. Five years ago, this figure sat at 46%.”
Notably, even though tire sales for the second quarter were down slightly, the total for the first half of 2025 is up over the first half of 2024 by 0.8%: $7.9 billion compared to $7.1 billion.
Continental’s view of the tire market
In its breakdown, Continental noted that original equipment tire sales were down year-over-year in the first half of 2025 due to “weak vehicle production in Europe and North America.
“By contrast, sales in the passenger car replacement tire business, particularly in the Asia-Pacific and Americas regions, were up year-on-year.
“In the commercial vehicle tire business, sales figures in the reporting period were on par with the previous year.”
For the full year, Continental expects tire sales to fall between $16.9 billion and $18.7 billion. That’s on the back of overall stabilized vehicle production, and the prediction of a “slight decline in demand” for replacement tires in the second half of 2025 “due to economic and geopolitical uncertainties.”
In North America, Continental expects the passenger and light truck replacement tire market to be in the range of flat to up 2% for all of 2025. Its global outlook is the same.
The North American medium and heavy commercial markets are expected to slow in the second half of the year, Continental said. The commercial market was weak in the first quarter, but Continental said it “recovered significantly” in the second quarter, “supported by continued strong imports despite tariffs in place.” For the full year, Continental expects that to add up to something in the range of down 4% to up 1%.
Investing in tire production
Thus far in 2025, Continental’s tire group sector has invested $547 million — or 6.9% of sales — to expand production capacity at existing plants, including what it called “major additions” to plants in Mount Vernon, Ill., as well as Hefei, China and Rayong, Thailand.
According to MTD’s 2025 Facts Issue, the plant in Mount Vernon produces, passenger, light truck and medium truck tires, with the greatest concentration being passenger tires. Combined, MTD estimated the production capacity at 44,300 tires a day.
About the Author
Joy Kopcha
Managing Editor
After more than a dozen years working as a newspaper reporter in Kansas, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, Joy Kopcha joined Modern Tire Dealer as senior editor in 2014. She has covered murder trials, a prison riot and more city council, county commission, and school board meetings than she cares to remember.