For 2013, the global car market is foreseen at 1,327 million pieces, 20 million fewer than estimates made last March, entirely attributable to the European replacement market, where the macro-economic context has worsened compared with expectations at the beginning of the year.

The decline in European volumes is estimated at 1/3 in Premium replacement and 2/3 non-Premium replacement. The focus on Premium will allow for an amplification of growth compared with non-Premium by 3 times and mitigate to a third the decline in the event of a decline in total tyre market demand.

In total, the Premium segment at the end of 2013 represents over 13% of the global car market with the percentage growing in emerging markets to over 8%, in the Nafta area to over 13% and in Europe to over 24%.

The global truck market is estimated at around 134 million pieces, with a reduction compared with the March estimate of around 2 million pieces.

Compared with prior indications, growth has been reduced from +4.8% to +3.2% essentially because of mature markets where growth is estimated at below 1% (market of 35.5 million pieces) compared with 5.3% indicated previously (37 million pieces). Emerging markets substantially confirm previously indicated growth, +4.2% to 98 million pieces.