Techking developing OTR solutions for specific markets
Growth at Techking continues unabated. The Qingdao, China-based company, who in early June celebrated its sixth birthday, started 2011 with a passenger car range containing more than 100 size specifications and a swelling truck and bus radial range. But its core business remains the off-road sector and by last year Techking offered consumers some 229 OTR radial specifications. This year it is adding a further twenty or so products to this bulging portfolio. Speaking with Tyres & Accessories, Techking’s marketing and sales manager James Wang reported that a number of fitments for the mining sector are being introduced. “We have developed 14.00R25 & 14.00R24, ETAT (E2) tyres particularly for long travel distance trucks for mining or logging transportation businesses, especially those operating in Australia, Indonesia and Canada. A second important new product is our 13.00R25, ETOT (E4) tyre, designed for heavy mining trucks in China, Mongolia, South East Asia and some African countries. A third newly introduced tyre is our 21.00R25, ETHM (E2), a high-mileage and speed tyre designed for an Australia original equipment customer.
Along with additions to its OTR tyre range, Techking is making progress with a related technology intended to make life easier for off-road fleet operators. When Tyres & Accessories caught up with Techking at last year’s Reifen trade show in Germany, company president Rongsheng Sheng shared that Techking’s Total Tyre Management System (TTMS) had been tested in China; now, a year later, the fleet data collection system has also undergone evaluation in several regions in order to fine tune it for global markets. As James Wang shares, feedback from users in China, Indonesia and India is helping the tyre maker get TTMS ready for market. “It is a more time consuming process than we expected,” he shares. “As the end users in different countries have different expectations for the system, many modifications and customisations have been carried out.” The fundamental idea behind TTMS is that – in contrast to TMPS, which only permits the monitoring of tyre performance on an individual vehicle – one person can singly manage an entire fleet from his or her computer and gain an instant overview of the running condition of every tyre in the fleet and when tyres need to be changed.
A stated goal at Techking is to move into the premium segment of the OTR market. As part of this, Wang says the company intends to place a greater focus on developing customised solutions for specific market segments. The goal is, he adds, to study demand and answer it with a product that brings customers real value. The tyre maker also intends to cater to original equipment customers to a greater extent, and as part of this has launched an “OE appreciation” programme for its original equipment customers in China. This involves visiting customer sites and evaluating tyre performance and optimising how the Techking tyres can best meet their expectations.
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