Prices will rise for Marangoni industrial tyres next month.

A number of tyre producers have followed Camoplast Solideal's lead (Forkliftaction.com News #710) and announced price hikes for tyres in Europe.

Italian tyre maker Marangoni Industrial Tyres announced at the end of last month that it will introduce an 8% increase in the selling price of all Industrial Tyres business unit products from 15 May. The price rise will apply to markets invoiced in Euros.

Marangoni makes most of its products at its Sri Lanka factory, and like all other manufacturers in the sector, needs to offset the effects of the significant strengthening of the US dollar and the consequent increase in production costs.

Sales director Lorenzo Stringari explains: "So far, we have managed to reduce the negative impact of the US dollar-Euro exchange rate, keeping down costs and thus avoiding extra costs for our customers.

"Nonetheless, while hoping the exchange rate returns to previous levels, in the current situation, the margins on our products are no longer sustainable. The now consolidated appreciation of the dollar against the Euro has forced us to revise our selling prices to partially offset this fall in margins."

Swedish manufacturer Trelleborg Wheel Systems will increase prices by 7 to 10% for its European agricultural and forestry tyres customers from 1 June. The tyre producer previously announced a price increase for its industrial tyre customers (Forkliftaction.com News #706).

"The price rise, which includes tyres for agricultural, forestry and light agricultural applications, is driven by a macroeconomic pressure on the manufacturing footprint outside the European area," Trelleborg said in a statement.

The company also cites the strong US dollar and the prices of raw materials for the significant increase in its production costs.

Meanwhile, Ute Weiss, a spokesman for the Commercial Specialty Tires (CST) business unit of German manufacturer Continental AG, says CST is currently not disclosing any price changes in its products. "Continental is an international company with worldwide subsidiaries; its business unit, CST, also operates globally. As a result, we have to take various factors into consideration that considerably influence the price development. Fluctuations in commodity markets and changes in exchange rate are only two of them."

"The price development in the specialty tyre market is determined by various global and regional factors. These include, among others, raw materials prices, competition, demand and production costs," Weiss adds.