Over the past year, another increase in the price of winter tires has been noted in Russia, although this time Russians tried to stock up on them in advance from the summer. Such data is provided by «Car news of the day», based on the research of the «YKassa» service and the analytical resource «Check index».
It is noted that the number of purchases of winter tires in the summer increased by 31%, and their average check increased by 9%: up to 6890 rubles. Summer tires are also bought more often by 10%. They have increased in price by 5%, to 3620 rubles per piece.
Russians prefer to buy domestic and Chinese tires: manufacturers occupy the niches that have become free after the departure of Western players. For part of the Russian tire industry, the leading positions of China in tire imports to the country in the budget segment create excessive production capacities that cannot be used for export due to sanctions.
At the same time, due to greater availability of manufacturing materials, Chinese, as well as Korean and Taiwanese tire products sometimes cost less than domestic ones. These three Asian countries together occupy half of the Russian tire market. But there are nuances.
The head of ROAD (Association "Russian Car Dealers") Alexey Podshchekoldin noted in a comment to Autonews that studded tires are unpopular in China, and China has not yet mastered their massive production for Russians.
Ilia Plisov, a member of the board of the Union of Auto Services of Russia, highlighted two more nuances in his comment to Autonews, which winter tire buyers need to take into account. Russian studding of Chinese tires, which is now carried out by some companies, often does not have the necessary quality for Russian roads.
In addition, according to him, there is no current Runflat technology in China, which allows you to get to the nearest car service on a punctured tire.