OREANDA-NEWS. March 11, 2010. Sibur Russian Tires has published a preliminary financial statement for 2009. Sibur Russian Tires is an auto-tire subdivision of Sibur Holding. The company controls the following publicly-traded tire manufacturers: Omskshina (RTS: OMSH), Yaroslavl Tire Plant (RTS: YASH), Voltair-Prom (RTS: VLTP) and Rezinotekhnika (RTS: SZRT).

Last year, Sibur Russian Tires’ consolidated revenue declined by 27% y-o-y, to RUB 20.1 billion from RUB 27.4 billion in 2008. The company sold a total of 8.1 million tires in 2009, down 20.6% y-o-y, including 5.4 million tires for passenger cars and light trucks (down 14.3%) and 2.4 million tires for commercial vehicles (down about 33.3% y-o-y). Export deliveries accounted for about 20% of total sales. Investments in production development totaled RUB 1.5 billion. The company’s key investment project is the construction of a solid metal cord tire plant with an annual capacity of 620,000 tires per year. This year, Sibur Russian Tires plans to increase its overall productive output by 14%.

In general, the published report has come as no surprise; at least, the revenue downturn looks fairly logical on the back of the drop in sales. The larger revenue decrease in the commercial-vehicle tire segment compared with the passenger-car segment was also anticipated. The company’s 14% sales growth projection in 2010 looks too optimistic. In fact, if sales indeed do meet these targets, it would mark the reversal of the market to pre-crisis levels. However, there are no serious prerequisites for this to happen now. The auto market, on which tire consumption directly depends, is now following a downward trend. For reference, in February 2010, passenger car and LCV sales in Russia dropped 31.8% y-o-y, while in 2M 2009, car sales plummeted by 34.4% y-o-y.