SL tire market to reach $ 488 m in 2016

The tire market in Sri Lanka has been growing over the last five years and is expected to reach $ 488 million in 2016, a marketing report in tire industry says.

According to TechSci Research report, “Sri Lanka Tire Market Forecast & Opportunities 2021”, Tire industry in Sri Lanka has been growing over the last five years due to rising automobile sales and fleet, on account of increasing income levels, growing infrastructure sector and easy availability of automobile loans at lower interest rates.

During 2013-2015, the automobile market in Sri Lanka witnessed growth on the back of increasing new vehicle registrations, with motor car sales and motorcycle sales standing at 105,628 units and 370,889 units in 2015, respectively. This in turn positively influenced demand for two wheeler tires in the country over the last couple of years.

Moreover, the growing supply chain and logistics sector in the country is anticipated to drive expansion of commercial vehicle fleet over the next five years, which is expected to boost demand for commercial vehicle tires in the coming years.

According to the TechSci Research report, the tire market in Sri Lanka is expected to reach $ 488 million in 2016, on account of a consistent increase in sales of two wheelers and three wheelers, rising private sector investments in the country’s construction, agriculture and industrial sectors, and expanding the fleet of commercial vehicles.

With a fleet size of 3.36 million units of two wheelers in 2015, the country’s tire market is dominated by the two wheeler tire segment in volume terms. CEAT Kelani, Global Rubber Industries (GRI) and Faga are a few of the major domestic tire manufacturing companies, while MRF Tires, Apollo, Goodyear and Bridgestone are the major global tire companies operating in Sri Lanka.