REVIEW BY THE PRESIDENT AND CEO
Half Year Financial Report January–June 2024, July 19, 2024
Jukka Moisio, President and CEO:
“In April–June 2024, our net sales increased clearly driven especially by Central Europe. Sales growth in Passenger Car Tyres continued as a result of improved product availability and higher sales volume. Vianor delivered a solid sales performance, while the weak OE market continued to impact Heavy Tyres’ net sales negatively. Segments operating profit improved driven by sales volume growth and lower raw material costs.
The car and tire market continues to be demanding due to economic uncertainties and low consumer confidence. The political strikes in Finland had a negative impact still in the second quarter. Due to the strikes in February–April, we lost in total approximately three weeks of production in Passenger Car Tyres and one week in Heavy Tyres. The negative financial impact of the political strikes and the Red Sea crisis on H1 EBITDA was approximately EUR 20 million, of which more than half was in Q1.
We continue building the new Nokian Tyres, and in early July we manufactured the first tire in our new factory in Romania - right on schedule and according to our plans. This is an important and great achievement from the whole Nokian Tyres team. In the US, we opened a finished goods warehouse next to our factory, completing the US investment phase. This year, we are also celebrating the 90th anniversary of our innovation, the winter tire, while at the same time continuing strong innovation work to launch new products to the markets.
We are taking firm steps forward in sustainability. During the quarter, we introduced an innovative concept tire made with a fully renewable lignin raw material, which has potential to replace a significant part of the carbon black currently used in tire production, reducing the need for fossil materials and lowering carbon emissions in tire manufacturing. This is once again a concrete step on the way to reach our target of increasing the share of recycled and renewable raw materials in our tires to 50% by 2030.
Tire sell-in is expected to grow in 2024, and with our increasing capacity and competitive product portfolio, we are ready to seize this opportunity. Due to seasonality, the sales growth and segments operating profit are expected to be generated in the second half of the year. Our strong balance sheet enables us to both continue executing on our clear growth strategy toward EUR 2 billion net sales with strong profits and reward our shareholders.”
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Nokian Tyres Annual Report 2023 was published on March 1, 2024
Read the newest CEO's review from pages 7–8.
Nokian Tyres Sustainability Report 2023 was published on March 28, 2024
Read the newest CEO's review from page 5.