As of October 31, nine major tire companies listed in the domestic A-share market had released the performance for the first three quarters of 2018 respectively. 
From Table 1, it can be seen that only four of nine companies achieves positive growth on operating revenue, but five are decreased compared with the same period of last year. According to the market information, the product prices of these nine tire companies were increased more or less within the report period, thus the decrease of the operating revenue may indicate the decline in operation rate or product sales.

Table 1: Performance of nine listed tire companies in the first three quarters

Unit: 100 Million Yuan

Table 2: Production and sales of the listed tire companies in the third quarter

For the net profits attributable to shareholders of listed company, as the same with the semi-annual report released before, five companies achieved a positive growth. But the difference was that as Aeolus Tyre turned a profit in the third quarter, all listed tire companies who released the detailed data were profitable. 

Linglong Tire said that in the third quarter, its sales grew by 5.18% year-on-year (the same below) and the sales revenue grew by 5.84% as the company actively developed domestic and international supporting and retail market during the report period. Besides, because a relatively large exchange gain came from the change in US dollar exchange rate, the company profits rose sharply. 

In the third quarter, the tire product price of Sailun Group increased by 7.84%. Meanwhile, during the report period, through various efforts on optimization of sales channels, adjustment of sales structure and improvement on sales of high added-value products, the company achieved large growth on net profits.

According to the announcement of Triangle Tire, in the third quarter, the tire price increased by about 2.21% compared with that of the second quarter. Besides, as for its major raw material in the third quarter of 2018, the purchasing price of the NR fell by 6.8% compared with that of the preceding quarter; the purchasing price of SR increased by 10.5%; the purchasing price of carbon black fell by 5.3%; and the purchasing price of steel cord stayed the same with that of the preceding quarter.

Guizhou Tire disclosed that in the third quarter, it actively adjusted the product structure and sales area structure and achieved preliminary results. In addition, its production and sales volume and sales revenue increased sharply and the product gross profits also rose obviously. 

On the basis of the announcement made by Aeolus Tire, in the first three quarters of 2018, as the price of main raw materials for tire manufacturing tended to a relatively stable state, the purchasing cost of raw materials was under control; and since the company vigorously promoted the adjustment of product and market structure, the products with low margin were cut down and the gross profits of tire were therefore increased. In addition, Aeolus Tire also strengthened the budget management, strictly controlled all costs and expenses and continually improved the the efficiency of management and operation, which as a result enhanced the overall competitiveness of the company.

According to Jiangsu General Science Technology Co., Ltd., due to small price changes on such raw materials that constitute the tire entity like NR, in the third quarter, the product price of the company was basically flat on a month-on-month basis. The purchasing price of NR decreased by about 4% compared with that of the second quarter. The purchasing price of SR was basically flat as that of the second quarter. The purchasing price of carbon black decreased by about 1% compared with that of the second quarter. The purchasing price of steel cord decreased by about 1.8% compared with that of the second quarter.    

Qingdao Doublestar made the following explanations on its decline in performance. Its subsidiary Doublestar Dongfeng Tire halted production in the third quarter for environmental relocation and “Industrial 4.0”upgrading. Partial design capacity in Dongjiakou base where the original Qingdao factory relocated due to environmental protection failed to be achieved and the manufacturing costs on each tire produced by this factory increased. Some production processes of the “Industrial 4.0” demonstration base project for high-performance radial tires applied to passenger cars, an equity investment project of Doublestar, were in the debug and optimization phase and the raw materials used during production were much more than that of general production. And the company added that with the “Industrial 4.0” intelligent factory in Shiyan Base, Hubei Province to be put into trial production in June 2019, the project capacity utilization would be gradually lifted, the raw material consumption be optimized and the company earnings be improved accordingly.

According to Giti Tire, in the first three quarters of 2018, its product sales decreased slightly, but the product sales price increased by about 5%. Besides, as the average purchasing price of raw materials relatively declined slightly, the company still made a profit in the report period.