Apollo Tires Expands Longhaul Commercial Vehicle Options
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NEW ORLEANS — Apollo Tires has launched a national account program for commercial longhaul tires that offers customers a standard cost per tire, the company announced March 4. Three tires will be offered via the program.
“Our steer tire EnduMile LHfront, drive tire EnduMile LHD and trailer tire are now fully available to customers across the United States,” Laurence Bennett, assistant vice president of commercial vehicles, said in a statement. The company also offers regional and mixed-service commercial vehicle tires.
Apollo is expanding its dealer network alongside the launch of the program, Bennett told Transport Topics on the sidelines of the 2024 Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting Transportation Technology Exhibition in New Orleans. TMC is part of American Trucking Associations.
Indian-owned Apollo unveiled plans for a longhaul tire range at TMC 2023 in Orlando, Fla.
Bennett
Bennett, previously an executive with Yokohama and Michelin, expects demand in the U.S. commercial vehicle tire market to grow in the next 12 months due to long lead times for original equipment builds. That prediction comes on the heels of a busy 12-month stretch that has been marked by high inventories after suppliers built up tire inventories, he noted. “Inventories have decreased at a lot of dealers,” he said. Demand is normalizing relative to 2022 levels, he added, even as supply chain issues continue to persist.
Beyond that, he believes broad factors that could steer the direction of the market this year include the general state of the economy, inflation rates, the cost of capital, freight rates and vehicle values. He added that upcoming regulatory changes for truck makers will come into play as the year progresses.
One wild card could be the upcoming presidential election and its impact on import tariffs for tires coming from Thailand, he added.
Despite its optimism about the U.S. market, Apollo does not plan to build a factory in the U.S. or elsewhere in North America at the moment, Bennett said, as it has plenty of flexible capacity at its existing plants.
The company has five manufacturing facilities in India as well as one each in the Netherlands and Hungary.
Still, Apollo has defined the U.S. as a “home market,” and therefore plans to build out a sales, distribution and support system that reflects that status, Bennett said.
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