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Morita, 52, will take over as CEO on Jan. 1. He’s currently the company’s chief strategy officer and has been with Bridgestone for almost three decades.

The company’s five-year midterm plan to be unveiled next year will include details on stock buybacks and an investment of 100 billion yen to build two production facilities in Europe or Asia.

Sales in North America slumped close to 10% during the third quarter, dragged down by slower demand for trucks and heavy-duty vehicles used in agriculture, Michelin said.

Bridgestone expects a tougher second half as its U.S. business faces a sharp drop in truck tire demand, tariffs take a toll and it deals with the fallout from a cyberattack that disrupted production.

As one of the top expenses for trucking companies of all types and sizes, tires go a long way toward determining a motor carrier’s profitability and success.

Congress has voted to kill a Biden-era rule requiring rubber tire makers to clean up planet-warming emissions from their manufacturing processes in the U.S.

Market observers say fleets can expect more replacement tire price hikes in the coming weeks and months as tariffs on rubber imports are passed through to customers.

The data-driven approach has found its way into one of the more underappreciated aspects of trucking literally where the rubber meets the road: tires.

Significant technological advances in recent years have helped to increase demand for LRR tires. “They’re just making the tires better and better all around,” one trucking executive said.

Goodyear has introduced the Cooper WORK Series Regional Haul All-position 2, a SmartWay-verified commercial truck tire designed for superregional and less-than-truckload fleets.