In recent years, the crash of the US construction market has played a huge role in the forest products industry in North America. A worldwide economic downturn has also impacted exports of lumber from the region.
Now, the forest products industry is beginning to uptick following a slow past few years. Moving forward in 2014 and beyond, the industry expects steady growth, which provides steady business opportunities for tyre dealers.
“The forestry industry has been on an upswing since the construction market began turning around, and 2013 was better than the previous year,” says Terry Goodwin, national sales manager of the forestry division for Alliance Tires Americas. “We’re predicting robust growth in the market for the next two years, and then slower but steady growth in the three years after that.”
Cara Junkins, director of field services for Titan International, says the OEMs she’s worked with are also predicting market growth. While the growth isn’t expected to be in the double digits percentage, it’ll be steady, she notes.
“From the equipment side, the first half of last year started to pick up and that has continued to move into this year,” she says.
Some of the main reasons for growth in the forest product industry will be the continued upswing of the US housing market and the export of wood to other countries, including China and Russia, says Goodwin.
Andrea Masella, marketing manager of forestry tyres for Trelleborg Wheel Systems America, agrees. He notes that in 2013 exports of wood products to China are up 27% from 2012.
“There was a kind of slow in the market during the past few years but it seems the market is picking up pretty well,” he says.
In the future, growth of the forest product industry could be heavily influenced by environmental and government regulations as well as the global economy, the tyremakers all say.
Customer Expectations
Forestry works in extreme environments. Machines can be harvesting wood on hillsides or in swampy and muddy conditions, all while dealing with stumps and other rough terrain elements.
Those in the forest products industry expect their tyres to last in such harsh environments, as downtime is obviously detrimental to business. Because of the terrain and demands of the market, tyres are still predominantly bias.
Titan’s Junkins says that for forestry applications, bias tyres are the most cost-effective fit.
“Having that flat footprint or long wear isn’t as big of an issue as having penetration resistance for both the tread area and the sidewall because of the severity of where forestry customers are working at,” she notes. “Additionally, they do a lot of repairs on forestry tyres and bias tyres are generally more repairable than a radial.”