Recently, the national rubber tire industry operation data for May 2026 has been officially released. The entire industry has shown a polarized pattern with completely opposite trends between the production end and the export end, which has also attracted great attention from many foreign trade practitioners.
From the perspective of production data, the industry’s positive signals are very clear: China’s rubber tire casing production reached 107.309 million units in May, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%; the cumulative tire production in the first five months of 2026 reached 501.71 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.9%.
Both monthly output and cumulative output have maintained positive growth. Behind this is that the overall operating rate of domestic tire manufacturers has remained within a stable range for a long time. A batch of new intelligent production capacities previously planned are gradually being released, which also confirms the strong resilience of the domestic tire supply chain. In an environment of fluctuating raw material prices and rising labor costs, stable production capacity is still maintained.
In sharp contrast to the hot situation on the production side, the export side has encountered considerable growth pressure.
Data show that China’s tire export volume in May 2026 was 58.84 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 4.8%; the single-month export value was approximately 13.018 billion yuan, a significant year-on-year decrease of 10.6%.
Judging from the cumulative data in the first five months, the country has exported a total of 296.23 million tires, still a slight increase of 2.6% year-on-year. However, the cumulative export value is only 64.629 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%. The overall situation shows an obvious characteristic of “increasing volume and decreasing amount”.
Industry insiders analyze that the double-digit decline in export volume in a single month shows that many tire manufacturers are currently adopting a price-for-volume business strategy in order to maintain overseas market share. The “increase in volume and decrease in volume” in the cumulative data means that companies sold more tires and ultimately earned less profits.
There are many reasons for this situation: on the one hand, inflation in traditional tire export markets such as Europe and the United States is high, consumer demand continues to be weak, and some regions continue to raise tire trade barriers, further compressing the profit margins of domestic tires; on the other hand, the production capacity of mid- and low-end tires in Southeast Asia and other places continues to be released, and competition in the international market has become increasingly fierce, which has also forced domestic tire companies to lower their export quotations.
For domestic tire manufacturers that rely heavily on foreign trade orders, the current market changes are undoubtedly a severe test.
At present, many companies have begun to actively adjust their business strategies: on the one hand, they are increasing their efforts to explore emerging markets such as the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa to diversify the risks caused by fluctuations in a single market; on the other hand, they are accelerating the research and development of high-end products such as high value-added semi-steel tires and special tires to enhance the core competitiveness of their products. Many companies are also trying to directly reach overseas end consumers through new models such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses to reduce profit losses in the intermediate circulation links and find new profit growth points.
