Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone is leaving Russia, selling its Russian assets to the diversified holding company S8 Capital.
The deal amount is not disclosed, but it is estimated by various sources to be between 7 and 10 billion rubles. According to "RG", Bridgestone employees, about a thousand people, will not lose their jobs - they will simply transfer to the Russian company. Ahead of them is testing, commissioning and restarting production facilities - previously, 2.4 million tires per year were produced in Ulyanovsk.
«Pervyi Technicheskiy» already wrote about how domestic manufacturers disposed of the capacities of another tire manufacturer, Nokian Tyres, which left Russia. The domestic company Ikon Tyres retained production in the Leningrad region and even launched a new line of summer tires.
Technologically, there are no changes in the design, formulation and shapes of the tires, all the necessary data for production was transferred to the Russians completely along with the assets. But under the terms of the agreement, one of the models was modernized: now the winter Character studs in the core have a butterfly shape. In addition, the products were renamed to operate their own brands in the markets.
By the current auto season, it turned out that tires in Russia have risen in price by 5-10% over the past year, although this time Russians tried to stock up on them in advance since the summer. According to a study by YuKassa and the Check Index analytical resource, Russians most often bought domestic and Chinese tires: manufacturers occupy the niches vacated after the departure of Western players.
For some Russian tire manufacturers, China's leading position in tire imports into the country in the budget segment creates excess production capacity, which cannot be directed to export due to sanctions. As a result, from January to September 2023, Russia produced only 29.6 million tires. This is 13.3% less than in the same period last year.
