Due to rising costs, tire giants raised prices by 8%!
Bridgestone today revealed plans to increase prices for its tire shipments to the Japanese replacement market by 6-8%. The price increase for summer tires will take effect from June 1, while winter tires will rise from September 1. The move is due to the challenge of offsetting rising raw material prices and logistics costs simply by improving productivity and reducing costs.
If annual shipments of domestic REP tires are 300 billion yen, an average price increase of 7% would translate into just over 20 billion yen. However, the impact of these increases on the fiscal year ending December 2025 is about 10 billion yen, which is relatively small compared to the operating profit guidance of 505 billion yen.For 2025, Sumitomo Rubber has already announced a price increase of up to 8% for Dunlop/Falken brand tires from April 1.
European companies have also expressed their intention to increase prices in the Japanese market. This latest announcement from Japan's leading tire manufacturer may trigger similar actions from other companies such as Yokohama Rubber and Toyo Tire. In 2025, dozens of price increase notices flooded the market. The price increase in 2025 was initiated by foreign capital and expanded by Chinese giants, eventually forming a full-scale price increase.
In 2024, foreign giants such as Michelin took the lead in announcing an increase in tire purchase prices in 2025, and it was not the price increase of passenger car tires, but the price increase of truck and bus tires, light truck tires and off-highway transportation business line products! The increase was as high as 8%! It directly shocked the dealers!
On a certain wholesale e-commerce platform, a 12R22.5 tire of a leading foreign brand like Michelin is priced at around 2,300 yuan, which is only a 3% price increase. The purchase cost of each tire has also increased by at least 70 yuan in 2025. Even if only 200 tires are purchased at one time, the purchase cost of only one brand will increase by nearly 1.4 million, not to mention that the price increase of some tire products is as high as 8%.
01 Tire companies, prices are rising in groups
In 2025, the financial reports of major tire companies show low profits, and almost no company does not raise prices. It is not difficult to see from the financial reports of tire companies that the sales and profits of almost all tire companies are not good, and with the continuous rise in raw material prices, for tire companies, the first half of the year is mainly price increases.
When talking about price increases, most tire companies mentioned that due to the increase in raw material prices, the manufacturing cost of tires has increased, so the price has increased
02 Manufacturers unite to jointly suppress goods?
When did the so-called tire price increase tide begin? It probably started in the second half of last year, and then it was like opening the valve of the price increase notice and swarming in. Why did tires increase in price in this case? Because in this case, if tire companies do not increase prices, they will be dead.
Some people analyzed this: I asked many tire dealers, and the price of tires has not increased much compared with last year. Why do tire companies release price increase notices one after another? The reason is that they want to take advantage of the "golden March and silver April" to increase sales. The tire companies choose to adjust prices at this time, which is very meaningful.
But some people hold different opinions: neither the futures price of natural rubber nor the spot price of natural rubber has increased significantly, but the price of carbon black has been rising all the way. Domestic small and medium-sized tire factories do not have the habit of hoarding raw materials for a long time, and most of them hoard goods for 7-15 days. The change of carbon black prices has a great impact on them, and the price increase is not false.
03 Terminal market, most of them shout for price increase
Whether the tire shop hopes to increase prices or not, of course they definitely hope! The dividends brought by the price are not what the market can give. For every price increase notice, the tire shop is extremely concerned and wants to let customers see it urgently. Of course, many people are accustomed to price increase notices, and they bluntly say that it is the routine of tire factories. They seem to be familiar with the obvious increase and hidden reduction.
In the circle of friends of tire people, it is true that most of them shout for price increase; but price reduction promotion is a reality. What you see every day is not how much the price of a certain tire will increase, but today's promotion list, with a big price reduction for tires, hurry up to change tires. They even put up price increase notices of other brands and bluntly stated that their own brands have not increased in price. The fancy promotions are dazzling.
Finally, regarding stockpiling, price increases and price cuts ultimately affect the inventory of tire stores and dealers. Tires are not fast-moving consumer goods, and consumers will not suddenly replace tires in large quantities based on price changes.
Price changes will only affect whether tire stores and dealers can seek certain benefits from the price difference. And the price increase notice does not indicate the product that has increased in price, the extent of the price increase, and the time of the price increase. How credible do you think it is? Tire prices are about to increase and may increase in the future; is such a statement too obvious to guide purchases?
