Pirelli & Cie SpA is celebrating its 150th anniversary. Marco Tronchetti Provera, the company’s executive vice chairman and CEO, shared his thoughts on a number of topics - including Pirelli's North American business - during a Jan. 31 press briefing.
The state of the tire industry in 2021 and at the start of 2022: "Despite the crisis created by the semiconductor shortage, the global market recovered faster than expected (in 2021.) People started moving again and the tire industry was positively affected. 2022 should continue in the same way and we expect in the second part of the year, the OE (market) should recover."
Pirelli’s North American strategy: "North America is one of our key markets and a market that is growing for us. We are successful in delivering products and our clients are asking for more. We are in the high end of dealers and we are growing (quickly.)”
Raw material costs: "I think the largest part of raw materials will find a balance. I think we’ll continue to have an inflationary environment, but we can cope with prices."
Supply chain challenges: "We have a policy and that is 80% of production comes from local (sources.) This is to reduce the impact from exchange rates, duties - whatever. That helped us. In goods for U.S. to the U.S., we had some challenges, but overall we coped with this in a balanced way."
How customers are changing: "We are already linked to our customers through new media. This is providing us with good results. In every corner of the world , we are using new media."
New opportunities: "The move to electric cars, for us, is an opportunity. We have to help reduce consumption of batteries and have better rolling resistance - which means technology. We expect to grow our market share in electric cars because of our highest level of technology."
