Dongying Second-tier Tires: Low Sales
In the second quarter of 2025, the tire market presented an incredible scene. The price of a second-tier brand of passenger car tires in Dongying has dropped to a staggering 140 yuan per tire, which is almost equivalent to "cabbage price".
According to common sense, such a low price should attract a large number of consumers to buy, but the reality is just the opposite. The market response is extremely cold, and no one is interested even if the price hits the bottom.
At the same time, the inventory problem in the domestic passenger car tire market is becoming more and more serious. Data show that in the same period, it takes an average of 45 days for domestic passenger car tires to be sold from storage to sale, while the same period last year was only 30 days, and the inventory turnover days are half a month more. This significant change directly reflects the current downturn and sluggish sales in the passenger car tire market.
From the perspective of market competition, there are many brands in the current tire industry, and the market saturation is extremely high. Not only do internationally renowned brands occupy the high-end market with their strong brand influence and technological advantages, but major domestic brands are also competing fiercely in the mid- and low-end markets. Under such circumstances, Dongying's second-tier brands are facing huge competitive pressure.
Other brands have attracted a large number of consumers by continuously improving product quality, optimizing services and conducting diversified marketing activities, making this second-tier brand increasingly marginalized in the market. Even if it adopts a low-price strategy, it is difficult to stand out among many competitors. When choosing tires, consumers tend to prefer brands with good reputation and high popularity rather than just focusing on price.
From the perspective of consumer demand, with the development of the economy and the change of consumer concepts, people's requirements for car tires are no longer limited to price. While paying attention to cost-effectiveness, they pay more attention to product quality, performance and safety.
Low-priced car tires may make consumers doubt their quality and worry about safety hazards during use. Especially for some car owners who have high requirements for vehicle performance and safety, they prefer to choose brand tires with relatively high prices but guaranteed quality. In addition, the current number of new energy vehicles is growing rapidly, and new energy vehicles have special requirements for tire performance, such as low rolling resistance, high load, quiet and comfortable.
This has also squeezed the market demand for traditional passenger car tires to a certain extent. When consumers buy tires, they need to consider whether the tires are suitable for their new energy vehicles, which further increases their concerns about buying low-priced traditional passenger car tires.
In terms of the macroeconomic environment, the uncertainty of global economic growth and the adjustment of the domestic economic structure have had a certain impact on consumers' consumer confidence and consumption capacity. Some consumers will be more cautious when facing non-essential consumer spending.
Replacing car tires is not an immediate rigid demand, and consumers may choose to postpone the replacement time to save money. Moreover, the downturn in real estate investment has also indirectly affected the tire market.
The real estate industry is closely related to the commercial vehicle market, and the reduction in demand for commercial vehicle tires has also affected the atmosphere of the entire tire market to a certain extent, making consumers more cautious when buying passenger car tires.
The problem of overcapacity in the tire industry cannot be ignored. The total production capacity of China's tire industry has long exceeded 900 million tires per year, while the actual demand is only about 650 million tires.
As an important area for tire production, Guangrao, Shandong, has a production capacity of 25% of the country, but the capacity utilization rate has been below 75% for a long time. Under this background of overcapacity, the contradiction of oversupply in the market is prominent.
Even if Dongying's second-tier brands lower their prices, the market is still flooded with a large number of similar products, making it difficult to digest inventory through price advantages.
Looking to the future, if Dongying's second-tier brand car tires want to get out of trouble, they need to work hard in many aspects. On the one hand, they need to increase investment in research and development, improve product quality and performance to meet consumers' demand for high-quality tires, and gradually change consumers' inherent impression of their brands; on the other hand, they need to optimize marketing strategies, accurately locate target customer groups, carry out targeted promotional activities and brand promotion activities, and increase brand awareness and market share.
At the same time, facing the rise of the new energy vehicle market, actively developing tire products adapted to new energy vehicles and opening up new market areas may be an effective way to get rid of the current dilemma of low prices and difficult to sell and inventory backlogs.
