The off-the-road (OTR) tire market in the United States experienced a down year in 2023, mainly due to dealers wrestling with excess and overpriced inventory from 2022, which needed to be cleared out before demand could rebound. However, according to Tony Cresta, director of product management for the Ag OTR and industrial segments at Double Coin, things have looked much better in 2024. The industry is witnessing increased demand, driven by infrastructure spending and housing development.
“We usually see an uptick heading to the spring, but that wasn’t the case at the beginning of 2023,” Cresta said. “Last year, from our view as a manufacturer, many of our dealers were sitting on inventory from 2022 that was higher than the current market price due to the logistical crisis and costs. Selling through that inventory took a little while. So far in 2024, we have seen a return to the traditional seasonal uptick.”
Cresta said a significant driver of this growth is the bipartisan infrastructure spending bill passed in 2021, which created around 40,000 projects nationwide and an expected boom for the OTR industry. “Transportation, Bridge, Highway; these are some sectors we expect to see the biggest growth in this year. That’s good for us as tire manufacturers; the country benefits from that. Productivity comes from infrastructure.”
According to Cresta, new home construction will increase this year and next. Despite labor shortages and higher materials prices, consumer demand is rising.
“The price of materials remains high compared to previous years,” he said. “Supply chain problems and general inflation woes that occurred in the last two years have affected these prices, and raw material prices have gone up.” Builders remain optimistic. Some contractors have coped with these issues by turning to alternative suppliers, materials, or products.
Regarding supply chain and manufacturing, Cresta said Double Coin hasn’t experienced significant delays in shipping tires from its Thailand factory to the United States, where it gets its shipments for truck and bus, OTR, and industrial tires for North America. However, Cresta acknowledged that fluctuating global market prices have been challenging, driven by disruptions in other regions.
“It’s not necessarily the route that we use that’s having consequences due to conflict or any other international issues going on right now,” he continued, “But since there are other routes having issues, we’ve seen the overall global market price fluctuating.”
Double Coin has focused on expanding its product lineup, including the recent launch of the REM-2S all-weather/snow radial tire. Cresta said the initial size, 20.5R25, has been successful and recently introduced three additional sizes: 23.5R25, 17.5R25, and 14.00R24 (385/95R24).
“The reception has been great with our dealer customers,” Cresta said. “We’ve had a successful rollout. We tested the REM-2S in various applications and the product runs well. The tire has a full tread depth sipe for the ice and snow conditions. We decided to use a tread compound that’s more adapted to all weather conditions rather than cold weather only to give us a year-round tire that’s great for municipalities or any other hard surface applications.”
Cresta said Double Coin will use traditional marketing to promote its new tires in various sizes. This includes providing promotional flyers to dealers, running social media ads, using digital marketing, and displaying tires at trade shows.
Looking ahead, Cresta believes that the electrification of construction equipment is an emerging trend that will shape the future of the OTR tire industry.
“Electrification of construction equipment has already begun,” he said. “We’re focused on meeting weight and torque requirements from these new EVs. We’ve seen it on the bus side where we have some overseas fitments. The extra weight and instant torque from the EVs are slightly different from what we’re used to, so it’s just something to keep in mind when designing tires for these vehicles.”
