Steel cord is a special thin steel wire strand or rope made of high-quality high-carbon steel and plated with brass on the surface. It is mainly used for passenger car tires, light truck tires, heavy truck tires, engineering machinery tires, aircraft tires and other rubber product skeleton materials.

According to the new market research report “Steel Cord - Global Market Share and Ranking, Overall Sales and Demand Forecast 2025-2031”, published by QYResearch, the global Steel Cord market size is projected to reach USD 7.98 billion by 2031, at a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period.

Figure00001. Global Steel Cord Market Size (US$ Million), 2020-2031

Source: QYResearch, "Steel Cord - Global Market Share and Ranking, Overall Sales and Demand Forecast 2025-2031”

Figure00002. Global Steel Cord Top 17 Players Ranking and Market Share (Ranking is based on the revenue of 2024, continually updated)

Source: QYResearch, "Steel Cord - Global Market Share and Ranking, Overall Sales and Demand Forecast 2025-2031”

According to QYResearch Top Players Research Center, the global key manufacturers of Steel Cord include Jiangsu Xingda, Bekaert, Jun Ma Group, Daye Shares, Zenith Steel Group, Shougang Century, Bridgestone, Hyosung, ArcelorMittal, Henan Hengxing, etc. In 2023, the global top 10 players had a share approximately 81.0% in terms of revenue.

In terms of product type, currently Normal Tensile (NT) is the largest segment, hold a share of 44.1%.

In terms of product application, currently Truck and Bus Radials (TBR) is the largest segment, hold a share of 62.6%.

Drivers

Support and promotion of relevant industrial policies: Metal wire products such as steel cord, steel wire, steel rope and steel strand have a wide range of applications; from the industrial policies of the main terminal application fields, it can be seen that the state has a relatively positive policy support for the metal wire products industry.

Steady development of the automobile industry: The global automobile industry is developing steadily and rapidly. With the development of the national economy, the improvement of residents' living standards and the rapid popularization of new energy vehicles, the global automobile consumer market will continue to grow, thereby driving the active development of the tire industry and tire skeleton materials such as steel cord.

Global Procurement Trends of International Tire Companies: The trend of world economic integration makes global procurement inevitable; in order to reduce production costs, tire manufacturers in various countries have obtained more cost-effective tire skeleton materials such as steel cord through global procurement.

Restraints

Cyclicality of the industry: The cyclical changes in the steel cord industry are closely related to the national economic environment. When the economic situation is good, the market demand for products will increase, thereby driving the development of the entire industry. When the economic situation is poor, the market demand for products will decrease, and the development of the entire industry will slow down accordingly. The industry fluctuates with the cyclical fluctuations of the national economic situation.

Product quality certification barriers: Since the quality of tire skeleton materials such as steel cord directly affects the safety and durability of tires, when selecting tire skeleton material suppliers, tire manufacturers often conduct laboratory tests, road tests, and product trials after processing for a long period of time, and conduct repeated demonstrations and multiple tests. Only when the steel wire products meet certain index requirements and maintain stable product quality can the final determination of the supplier be completed. For ordinary tire companies, the certification cycle often takes 6-12 months, while internationally renowned tire companies usually require a certification cycle of 2-3 years.

Capital Barriers: Tire skeleton materials such as steel cords require large equipment and therefore require more capital support. At the same time, since the main raw material of this industry is wire rod, wire rod procurement often requires a large amount of capital support to ensure the normal operation of production. In addition, the downstream of tire skeleton materials is tire manufacturing companies, which usually use bills and other settlement methods to pay when purchasing raw materials, and the settlement cycle is long, which will affect the cash flow of the company to a certain extent. If tire skeleton material manufacturers do not have sufficient financial strength, it will be difficult to support normal operations on weekdays.

Opportunities

Currently, in the tire market of developed countries, 65, 60 and 55 series wide section all-steel radial tires have replaced 80 and 70 series tires to become the new generation of standard equipment tires. In order to improve the competitiveness in the international tire market, Chinese tire manufacturers continue to launch wide section, flattened all-steel radial tires, prompting the tire industry to have higher and higher performance requirements for steel cords. In radial tires, the belt layer, as the main load-bearing component, bears more than 60% of the tire load. Therefore, replacing normal strength (NT) and high strength (HT) steel cords with ultra-high strength (ST) steel cords is a necessary condition to adapt to the development trend of tires.

The regional characteristics of the tire skeleton material industry, such as steel cord, are quite obvious. From the perspective of tire skeleton material production, the main manufacturers are located in China, South Korea, Japan, Europe and other places. From the perspective of market demand for tire skeleton materials, the main customers of tire skeleton materials are large tire manufacturers.

Tire skeleton materials such as steel cord are mainly used in the production and manufacturing of various tires, so the seasonal changes in the tire industry directly affect the seasonal changes in upstream industries. For example, during the Spring Festival holiday in the Chinese market, downstream tire manufacturers will suspend production, which will have a certain impact on the sales of the company's steel cord products. Specifically, the Spring Festival is usually the off-season for production and sales in the tire industry. Therefore, as an upstream industry in the tire industry, January to March each year is the off-season for sales, and April to December is the peak season for sales.

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