QUINCY, Ill. — Tire and wheel maker Titan International Inc. reported sales of $210.3 million in the second quarter, up 20 percent from the like period of 2006.
Net earnings for the quarter were $4.96 million, down from the $5.6 million posted a year earlier.
For the first six months of 2007, Titan reported all-time record sales of $436.6 million, a 22-percent increase from $357.8 million for the same period in 2006. Net earnings through June were $2.48 million, down from $14.2 million last year.
"The second quarter has been very exciting for Titan, said Chairman and CEO Maurice Taylor Jr. "Our sales are up, as they should be from last year´s acquisition." The company in July 2006 purchased Continental Tire North America Inc.´s off-the-road tire plant in Bryan, Ohio, to bolster its large-tire capacity.
Taylor said Titan is expanding its OTR business and adding OTR products by expanding capacity at its Freeport, Ill., plant, which it obtained in December 2005 as part of its purchase of Goodyear´s farm tire business. While this is happening in Freeport, some of the company´s farm tire capacity is being transferred to its Des Moines, Iowa, agricultural tire facility, he said.
While agricultural tires and wheels continue to make up the bulk of Titan´s business, sales from the earthmoving/construction segment more than doubled in the second quarter to $72.3 million and for the year to $147.5 million.
Titan also is moving forward in its plan to produce giant OTR tires in the near future, Taylor said. In May, the company´s board of directors approved funding to increase mining tire production capacity to include 57- and 63-inch giant radial tires.
The funding should allow Titan to produce up to an estimated 6,000 giant radial tires a year, with an estimated sales increase of as much as $240 million, the company said.
The company plans to produce sample 63-inch tires in the first quarter of 2008, followed by the 73.5-inch tire, and estimates its will be in start-up production mode for these tires by the end of next year´s second quarter, Taylor said.