Global Tire Industry 2025

The global tire industry is at a critical juncture of reshaping its landscape. Four key trends are intertwined: Chinese companies' overseas expansion is flourishing across Southeast Asia; technological breakthroughs have been achieved in tires for new energy commercial vehicles.

The EU's anti-subsidy investigation has caused fluctuations in the export market; and international tire giants are accelerating global capacity optimization and increasing their investment in the Chinese market. These trends outline a clear path for the industry's deep transformation towards green, intelligent, and globalization, presenting both opportunities and challenges.

Chinese tire companies are diversifying their global expansion efforts in Southeast Asia, with Cambodia and Malaysia emerging as new investment hotspots. Following the impact of trade barriers on their Thai base, Chinese companies' investments in Southeast Asia in 2025 are characterized by "multi-point deployment and precise risk mitigation."

As of December 2025, Cambodia's annual tire supply capacity has exceeded 23 million units, more than doubling compared to 2022. Companies such as Wanli and General Tire have successively established production capacity, and local capacity is expected to further increase to 65 million units by early 2026.

Malaysia has also become a prime investment destination. Prinx Chengshan broke ground on a new factory in Kedah Rubber City in November 2025, with a planned initial production capacity of 6 million high-end passenger car tires and 600,000 commercial vehicle tires. Newland Rubber, Xindi Tires, and other companies have also increased their investments, leveraging the strategic location of the Strait of Malacca to reach the global market.

Meanwhile, Egypt remains a crucial node for Chinese companies expanding into the Asian, African, and European markets. Investment projects by companies such as Sinochem Baidean and Chaoyang Langma are progressing steadily, forming a dual-hub overseas production capacity structure of Southeast Asia and the Middle East. This effectively circumvents trade barriers from Europe and the United States while improving supply chain responsiveness.

The booming new energy commercial vehicle market has driven a surge in demand for specialized tires, with domestic companies achieving technological breakthroughs. Since 2025, the penetration rate of new energy commercial vehicles in China has exceeded 30% for the first time, with September sales increasing by 71.9% year-on-year. The heavy truck sector has even achieved six consecutive months of growth, with a year-on-year increase exceeding 200%.

Addressing the pain points of high tire wear and high failure rates caused by the "high torque + heavy load" of electric commercial vehicles, Zhongce Rubber launched a series of electric vehicle-specific tires covering all types of commercial vehicles in 2025, and globally debuted the Green Motion EV505, a super van-specific tire, in October.

This product uses an all-alloy tire carcass jointly developed with Bekaert, with a single tire load capacity of 2 tons, exceeding the national standard by 70%. Combined with a special wear-resistant compound, wear resistance is improved by 15%, precisely matching core scenarios such as urban delivery and cold chain transportation.

In the passenger vehicle sector, the policy of promoting new energy vehicles in rural areas continues to activate the county-level market. Brands such as Giti and Goodyear are steadily increasing their market share of low rolling resistance and quiet tires, with Giti's original equipment market share exceeding 14%, becoming the mainstream choice for family travel in county areas.

While domestic high-end tire technology continues to make breakthroughs, the industry faces structural pressure on the export side. Following the mass production of Shandong Linglong's SPORT MASTER e-series 3A-grade tires, the domestic substitution process for high-end tires has accelerated. This product has reached international first-tier levels in three core performance aspects: rolling resistance, wet grip, and noise, driving the transformation of domestic tire manufacturers from "cost competition" to "value competition."

However, the EU's initiation of an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese passenger car tires in November 2025 has brought uncertainty to the export market. Data shows that the EU is one of China's largest tire export markets, accounting for 25.51% of exports in 2024. Affected by the investigation, China's new rubber tire exports in October 2025 declined by 8.2% year-on-year, marking three consecutive months of month-on-month decline.

As a result, the capacity utilization rate of domestic semi-steel tire manufacturers plummeted to 66%, below the 70% profit threshold, with inventory turnover days reaching as high as 45.23 days. The industry is trapped in a structural predicament of "overcapacity + declining demand," with some companies attempting to break through by reducing production through maintenance and focusing on niche markets.

International tire giants are accelerating their global strategic restructuring, increasingly investing in China's high-end market. Michelin, Goodyear, and other companies continue to reduce inefficient production capacity. In 2025, Michelin closed several factories in Mexico, Brazil, and Europe, and divested its off-road tire brand, Camso, focusing on high-value-added product lines.

Goodyear, on the other hand, sold its chemical business for $650 million, completing its three-step "slimming down" strategy, and its operations have continued to improve. In stark contrast to this global contraction, international giants are increasing their investment in China: Michelin's Shenyang plant's silent tire technology upgrade project was completed, increasing capacity to 5 million tires per year.

Bridgestone plans to invest an additional 562 million yuan over three years to increase the production capacity of its silent cotton technology tires. Continental's Hefei plant's Phase IV project went into operation, and after reaching full production capacity in 2027, its annual output will reach 18 million tires. 

This localization efforts by foreign companies are targeting the growth dividends of China's new energy vehicle market while also intensifying competition in the high-end market.