The African tire market was previously dominated by so-called "premium" European brands such as Pirelli, Bridgestone, Goodyear and Dunlop, and is currently experiencing a significant slowdown. In fact, the observations from all tire dealers operating in the South Sahara region are consistent: New car sales increase with maintenance-related expenses, which is contrary to the fact that households have very little budget to buy high quality tires.
One of the biggest problems faced by consumers with low purchasing power. The sales director of SAP (Société Africaine de Pneumatiques Olympic), Salifou Tinto, explains that if a person buys four new premium tires, that is equivalent to two months of a worker's salary that is more than 500 euros in Bhutan.
Users also do not choose to buy second-hand tires because they are of poor quality and do not withstand roads that are in poor condition, and this can lead to accidents. In fact this is a good reason to think about it. So they find themselves in the dilemma that a new Asian tire is five times cheaper than a new one from Michelin.
Due to this, vehicle owners from almost the entire African continent decide to buy more and more from other manufacturers such as India, Russia or China.
Unfair competition
All this has favored the informal sector that has increased imports to four times more than local suppliers on the African continent, and tires from China are struggling to compete with “premium” tires. To understand this situation a little better, we must bear in mind that companies are the main customers of new products.
Heavy vehicle tires account for almost half of the tire demand. A sector for which "brand" tires and Asian tires fight. Another type of tires are those of the civil engineering sector, such as agriculture, mining and construction, it is estimated that they represent 30%. It is still a field occupied by European manufacturers and Chinese manufacturers are trying to dominate. The remaining 20 is distributed, between 4 x 4 cars, vans and passenger vehicles.
This is an area that Chinese tire suppliers are already beginning to dominate. Before this commercial landscape in which the Chinese are apparently gaining ground, European tire manufacturers are working harder to improve the quality of service they offer to their customers.
At the moment numkhor.com and the other websites of the AsiacarGroup network only have cars, trucks and motorcycles published on them, but we have more on the agenda on the subject of tires.
