At the beginning of 2026, the global tire industry will usher in an overall recovery.
But at the same time, problems such as exchange rate fluctuations, raw material price shocks, and uneven regional market demand still plague the industry. It is difficult to increase revenue and profits, and unbalanced regional development has become a common problem for many brands.
In an industry context of intertwined opportunities and challenges, Korean tire brand Nexen delivered a first-quarter answer that exceeded expectations. Both revenue and operating profit set a new record for the company’s single-quarter history, achieving high-quality growth with steady revenue growth and leading profits.
This outstanding performance is by no means a short-term market bonus, but the inevitable result of years of deep market cultivation, anchoring high-end, and global layout. It also laid a solid growth foundation for its full-year development.
Performance soared, double profits reached new peaks
In the first quarter of 2026, Nexans’ overall operating performance exceeded its best level.
According to official disclosures and data compiled by authoritative industry financial platforms, sales for the period reached 838.3 billion won, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%; operating profit was recorded at 54.2 billion won, a significant year-on-year increase of 33.1%.
It can be clearly seen that the profit growth rate is much higher than the revenue growth rate, and the company’s profit structure and profit quality have achieved a real jump.
Dual market-driven products build profitability
Dismantling the core logic behind Nexans’ strong breakthrough in the first quarter, the two core supports are particularly clear: First, deepening the core markets of Europe and the United States and stabilizing the basic market by relying on regional increments; second, accelerating the upgrading of product structure, relying on high-end to increase profit margins, stabilizing the bottom line and raising profitability, forming a two-way growth pattern.
The two major markets of Europe and North America together contribute 68% of Nexans’ overall sales and are the core pillars of performance growth.
In the European region, Nexans continues to increase the scale of original equipment cooperation with luxury car companies such as BMW and Audi, steadily increasing its supply share. At the same time, following the consumer trends in mainstream markets such as Germany, France, and Italy, the demand for large-size tires of 18 inches and above continues to heat up, and the replacement market performs well.
Relying on the simultaneous development of original equipment and retail replacement channels, Nexans has successfully established itself in the European high-end tire market.
In the North American market, Nexen adjusts its product layout in a timely manner according to changes in local vehicle model structure. As the number of medium and large family cars and off-road models increases, the shipment of supporting tires has grown steadily.
In the replacement market, all-season and all-weather tire categories have achieved simultaneous growth. Weather-resistant tires specially designed for local complex road conditions have gained market recognition for their stable grip and durability.
Currently, large-size tire sales in North America account for 45%, significantly higher than the global average, providing solid support for overall profit improvement.
The product structure is tilted towards high-end, which is the key to Nexans’ profit performance being better than revenue growth.
In the first quarter of this year, the brand’s large-size tire sales of 18 inches and above accounted for 40.8%.
Compared with conventional small-size products, large-size tires have higher unit prices and gross profit levels. The optimization of product structure directly drives the overall profitability upward.
The financial report shows that the company’s gross profit margin for the quarter increased by 2.3 percentage points compared with the same period last year, setting a record high, effectively offsetting the cost pressure caused by raw material price fluctuations.
The Asia-Pacific market has been weak due to the impact of low-price products and inventory backlog, which also shows that Nexans adheres to the high-end route and stays away from low-end price wars, which is in line with the current industry development trend.
Look forward and accumulate strength to make progress
Looking back from 2025 to the present, Nexans has quietly made multiple strategic moves, and a series of forward-looking layouts have continued to be implemented, which has become the deep foundation for the performance explosion in the first quarter of 2026 and also accumulated potential for the long-term development of the brand.
The global channel layout continues to accelerate, opening up incremental space for performance growth.
In the past year or so, Nexans has steadily improved its overseas sales network, established new sales bases in Spain and Poland, and extended its reach to emerging markets such as Southeast Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, gradually building a global distribution system covering mature markets and potential markets.
The complete channel layout has not only stabilized the basic order base in the core markets of Europe and the United States, but also paved the way for subsequent sales releases in emerging markets, getting rid of the operational risks of relying on a single market.
Technology research and development and hardware strength will be increased simultaneously to build the core competitiveness of products.
Nexans has officially launched the exclusive winter and all-weather tire testing center in Zixue Ivalo, Finland, to create a professional testing platform for high-cold and complex road conditions, providing hard-core support for the research and development iteration of winter tires and high-performance tires, and further strengthening its product voice in the European and American high-end tire markets.
At the same time, the brand continues to promote the upgrade of the production end, optimizes the existing production capacity structure, tilts resources towards high value-added products, and strictly controls inefficient production capacity expenditures. At the same time, the brand introduces AI virtual R&D processes to shorten the new product development cycle, accurately adapt to the product needs of different regional markets, and build a complete closed loop integrating R&D, production, and sales.
Potential energy continues and full-year prospects are promising
The good start in the first quarter is not an accidental surge in short-term market conditions, but a concentrated release of the results of the implementation of Nexans strategy. It has opened a stable upward channel for full-year development in 2026, and there is sufficient support for full-year performance growth.
From the perspective of growth potential, the overall demand in the European and American vehicle markets remains stable, but large-size tires and original equipment of high-end car companies are in a structural upgrade cycle, and demand resilience is sufficient.
In addition, the overseas emerging sales channels deployed by Nexans in the past year have gradually entered the right track of operation, coupled with the improvement in production efficiency brought about by the optimization of internal production capacity structure, the annual revenue has a solid growth foundation.
On the product side, Nexans has successively launched new products such as high-performance all-season tires and special summer tires according to different regional climates and road conditions, and continues to improve its high-end product matrix. There is still room for growth in the sales proportion of high value-added tires, and the gross profit margin for the whole year is expected to remain at a good level.
In view of the operating shortcomings in the Asia-Pacific market, Nexans has clearly adjusted its thinking and will gradually improve the regional operating status and make up for the shortcomings in performance by optimizing product portfolio, flexibly adjusting pricing strategies, and strictly controlling channel inventory.
Relying on the multiple advantages of a global channel network, professional tire testing base, and intelligent R&D system, Nexans can effectively hedge against external uncertainties such as fluctuations in raw materials and changes in the geo-environment.
Judging from comprehensive brand strategic planning and industry development trends, Nexans will continue its good growth momentum in the first quarter in 2026, with revenue and profits maintaining a steady upward trend, its development path towards high-end and globalization becoming increasingly clear, and its competitiveness among global tire brands will be further consolidated.
Industry Enlightenment Anchoring the Long-term Track
Nexans’ strong performance against the trend in the first quarter also provides development ideas for the entire tire industry.
In an environment where the total industry volume is stable and cost fluctuations are normalized, it is no longer sustainable to rely solely on low prices to increase volume and extensive production expansion.
Only by abandoning short-term profit-seeking thinking, insisting on the transformation of products into high-end products, and deeply exploring the large-size and high-value-added tracks; at the same time accelerating the layout of global channels to diversify the risks of a single market; and building technical barriers with self-developed testing systems and intelligent R&D, can enterprises overcome the industry cycle, get rid of low-price involution, and achieve high-quality development with simultaneous improvement in sales and profits. This is also the core direction for tire companies to break through the competition in the future.
