China Tire Demand Slows as Economy Decelerates, Bridgestone Says
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Tire demand in China, the largest rubber consumer, is growing at a slower pace than last year as the nation’s economic expansion is decelerating, said an executive at Bridgestone Corp., the biggest tiremaker.
“The Chinese market is in an adjustment phase,” Vice President Makio Ohashi said in an interview yesterday. Growth in tire sales for trucks and buses, or half of the country’s demand, may slow to near the rate of gross domestic product expansion at 7.5 to 8 percent annually from last year’s 11 percent, said Ohashi. Passenger-car tire sales are also slowing from last year’s 16 percent expansion, he said.