While I do not qualify as a stereotypical hoarder, I tend to hang on to certain things because you never know when you will need them. I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. My filing and organizational systems lack precision and clarity, but I have hung on to a few things I can find when needed over the years.
Modern Tire Dealer, a FleetOwner affiliate within the Endeavor Business Media family, has assembled commercial tire “Quick-Stats” for decades. A lot of information includes market share and the most popular sizes. Recently, I came across my stash of Quick-Stats and have data that reflects the markets in 2004, 2014, and 2024 and how much the industry has and has not changed.
At the macro level, U.S. truck tire replacement and OE shipments increased from 15.8 million replacement and 5.6 million OE in 2004 (21.4 million total) to 17.3 million replacement and 5.8 million OE in 2014 (23.1 million total). In 2024, replacement shipments grew to 21.2 million, while OE held steady at 5.8 million (27 million total). The overall domestic truck tire market has grown over the past two decades.
However, the new-truck tire market share experienced a noticeable shift from 2014 to 2024. Ten years ago, Michelin led the U.S. market with 18%, followed by Bridgestone at 17.5%, Goodyear at 12.5%, and Yokohama at 10%. The 2025 Quick-Stats show Bridgestone in the top spot at 14%, Michelin in second at 13.5%, and Goodyear tied with Yokohama in third at 8.5%, respectively. In every case, a smaller slice of the larger pie is still a net loss, with each manufacturer losing sales.
While the top four brands all lost market share over the past 10 years, Continental (5% in 2014, 8% in 2024), Double Coin (4% to 5.5%), Hankook (3% to 4%), and Toyo (2.5% to 3.5%) all increased their slices of the pie. And from 2014 to 2024, Falken (2.5%), Fortune (1.5%), Zenna (1.5%), Gladiator (1%), Prinx (1%), Roadmaster (1%), and Westlake (1%) all reached the required 1% of the market to be listed.
Where did the rest of the market share go? In 2014, the “Others” category, which included all brands with less than 1% of the market, was 5.5%. A decade later, that number ballooned to 14.5%. Offshore imports with names you’ve never heard of are becoming major players in the new-truck tire market.
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This shift is also affecting the truck tire retreading landscape. The number of retreads (16.6 million in 2004, 15.6 million in 2014, and 15 million in 2024) shows a slow decline easily attributed to the increase in low-price imports. For the cost-per-mile fleets, purchasing new tires that provide a quality casing for multiple retreads remains the path to the lowest operating costs in most cases. Price fleets have no intention of retreading, so they opt for disposable tires at bargain-basement prices to save money. The most environmentally friendly option for supplying truck tires is becoming less of a choice.
A major contributor to this shift is that the most popular replacement and original equipment sizes have not changed much over the past decade for the domestic manufacturers that are members of the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association. From 2014 to 2024, the 295/75R22.5 was the most popular size in both categories, with 28.9% of the replacement market and 39.7% of OE and 29.1% replacement and 29.6% OE in 2024. Not far behind, the 11R22.5 held the second place slot in 2014 with 22.2% replacement and 26.9% OE, and 22.5% replacement and 29.3% OE in 2024.
Two sizes continue to account for half of USTMA truck tire production, which is great news for trucking because there are many options in those two sizes. It’s even better news to offshore manufacturers because they only have to build two sizes to supply half the market.
No one can predict what will happen over the next 10 years, given what’s happened over the past decade or two. The delicate balance I wrote about earlier appears even more fragile than I thought. If this trend continues, the appetite for cheap imported truck tires will continue to erode domestic manufacturing and increase the dependency on offshore manufacturers and foreign governments.
