Maxam appoints KRT
Luxembourg-based Maxam Tire has appointed Kings Road Tyres as the exclusive dealer for the UK and Ireland of the company’s range of construction and industrial pneumatic tyres.
About Andrew
Andrew is an editor for WhatTyre, Tyrepress, and Tyres & Accessories magazine. He has more than a decade of experience in editing, writing, and journalism.
Entries by Andrew
Pryce wins Yorkshire Rally, Pirelli Star Driver finishes 5th
Osian Pryce won the Trackrod Yorkshire Rally, round five of the British Rally Championship, following a three-way battle that took the event to the final stage. Pirelli, on whose tyres the BRC is competed, said that the rally matched last year’s corresponding event, which staged one of the championship’s closest finishes, for excitement. The manufacturer’s supported Pirelli Star Driver Mark Donelly helped make the event for Pirelli, driving a mature rally to bring his Pirelli-backed Citroen DS3 R3T home in fifth. Meanwhile championship leader Jukka Korhonen – a former Pirelli Star Driver himself – looks likely to clinch the title in the Dorset and Hampshire forests, where the six-round series concludes with Rallye Sunseeker International (18-19 October).
Jordan extends Dunlop MSA BTCC advantage
At the end of the Silverstone meeting there are five drivers in contention for the 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. While Andrew Jordan is in command after extending his advantage, two wins for Jason Plato and another for reigning champion Gordon Shedden kept their respective title hopes alive. Two other former champions in Matt Neal and Colin Turkington are also in contention in the final three races of the season at Brands Hatch in two weeks’ time.
Triangle’s 2013 global summit exemplifies Chinese globalisation ambitions
The theme of globalisation loomed large over Chinese tyre manufacturer Triangle’s latest Global Business Summit, held in the China Hall of the older Grand Tower of Pudong, Shanghai’s Shangri-La Hotel. While the chairman of the board Ding Yuhua’s conference starting theme speech riffed on the theme with regard to manufacturing processes, employee base and international trends, the presence of delegates from around the world reinforced the message the world’s 16th largest tyre manufacturer’s message – Triangle suppliers from three continents travelled with Tyres & Accessories to the Shangri-La from Pudong International, to underline a point. In the coming year, Ding Yuhua said that Triangle is seeking to “speed up the transformation and upgrade [its] manufacturing to synchronise with the global economy,” while focusing on the environmental standards Triangle now characterises as part of the “mainstream” in the post-REACH, post-labelling landscape – in China as well as the rest of the world. This involves greater investment in green production technology that he says is yielding a “four per cent increase in energy efficiency yearly”.
Hankook exhibits new tyres at CV Show 2013
Hankook unveiled several new commercial tyres at the CV Show, including the bead to bead retread truck tyre the Alphatread. Additionally Hankook’s latest truck tyres, which aim to fill a gap it identifies between medium and long haul transportation, were displayed, while the brand raised interest in its stand through its sporting sponsorships. Tom May and Phil Dowson, players from Northampton Saints RFC visited the stand, while Hankook also ran a competition to win VIP tickets to football’s Europa League semi-final, a partnership that was announced at last year’s show.
Triangle buys 10% share of TYM International
Triangle and TYM International have jointly announced the Chinese tyre manufacturer’s purchase of a 10 per cent share of its UK distributor’s business. TYM International general manager, Steve Eke and Triangle Group board chairman, Ding Yuhua exchanged documents during the Triangle Group’s 2013 Global Business Summit at the Pudong Shangri-La Hotel, Shanghai on 18 May. The purchase is currently subject to ratification by the Commerce Department of the Chinese Government, though both parties are confident that the deal will proceed smoothly. This year marks the tenth anniversary of TYM’s distribution of Triangle passenger car, truck and bus, and off-the-road products and Eke told Tyrepress.com that he was very pleased to have converted “the customer-supplier relationship into a partner relationship.”
Pirelli responding to Crossover growth
Pirelli has identified the popularity of what it calls “crossover utility vehicles” (CUV), which continued to grow in popularity over the past year. The more compact SUV has begun to bring new motorists to the segment, with both the safety and comfort of its larger cousins, but also the promise of improved fuel economy. Pirelli’s Scorpion Verde in particular has provided an option within its range to motorists attracted to a more efficient SUV, designed as a low rolling resistance 4×4 tyre.
GfK: UK 4×4 market depressed, but V-Z speed sizes grow
Anyone aware of the continued economic fug across the continent might have expected the news that UK and Europe-wide 4×4/SUV tyre markets were depressed in 2012; what you may not have so readily expected was that the macro-trend of increasing sales of V, W, X and Y speed rated SUV tyres would have continued to grow. Yet the latest data from UK market researcher GfK, read in the context of Europool and ETRMA figures, shows that this is exactly what happened during the last year, with more powerful road oriented models continuing to prove popular.
Social network tyre business usage over 50%
More than 50 per cent of businesses in the tyre industry use social networks like Facebook and Twitter for business purposes, according to a poll conducted amongst trade visitors to Tyrepress.com. A full report on social network use in the tyre business has been published in the October edition of Tyres & Accessories for the past two years, and in this relatively short period of time we have seen growing competitiveness amongst the big-name manufacturers in particular.
Maxxis unveils $150m Shanghai proving ground
Maxxis International has held a grand opening ceremony attended by nearly 400 domestic dignitaries and overseas partners for its new Maxxis Proving Ground in Kunshan City, directly adjacent to the company’s Shanghai manufacturing plant. The 860,000sqm comprehensive testing facility is estimated to have cost more than US$150 million, and is thought to be the first proving ground on such a large and all-encompassing scale in China. Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co., Ltd., doing business as Maxxis International, calls its new testing facility the country’s “first international standard proving ground”. Backing up this claim, Tyres & Accessories/Tyrepress.com was informed at the opening that at least one European original equipment manufacturer – Mercedes – had given Maxxis input into the facilities required at the proving ground to continue to build its OE supply, while a construction firm from Japan was consulted, though it was built by the Chinese.
Uniroyal looking to regain market share
Uniroyal enjoyed a “very good” second day of the Brityrex 2012 according to Sales manager, Glen Birkwood. The eastern European manufactured brand was communicating the products’ cost effectiveness at Brityrex, and Birkwood explained that the brand is currently “regaining” some of the ground it lost towards the beginning of the year in the UK as the cheap budget market expanded.
Sailun details Kapodistrias Cyprus partnership
Sailun Tyres appointed Chr. Kapodistrias & Sons Limited as its sole distributor of passenger car and radial truck tyres in Cyprus earlier in the year. The company is the largest automotive parts company in Cyprus. Sailun says the companies will pursue a number of brand awareness and marketing communication initiatives to stimulate sales and growth for Sailun in Cyprus. These will include radio commercials; press advertisements; leaflet distribution; participation in a local automotive exhibition; an appearance on rally and racing cars and events; and an event evening in Nicosia with a joint presentation and cocktail party for key, existing and potential new customers.
Deruibotire Targets 24 Million Tyres Produced in 2011
Deruibotire (or Shandong Deribao Tire Co, Ltd), a tyre-maker in Guangrao County, a region of China’s Shandong Province has big new production plans in the offing in 2011. Visiting Brityrex 2010 in Manchester with a Chinese delegation, the company’s president Yuan Tingshu told Tyres & Accessories that, while the company is currently producing 3 million radial tyres per year, it is developing a production line to produce 24 million units in 2011.
Guangrao County Delegation Visits Brityrex
Brityrex 2010 attracted a group of visitors from Shandong Province’s Guangrao County, which met with Tyres & Accessories on the Tuesday evening in Manchester’s Renaissance Hotel off Deansgate. The delegation included the president of Deruibotire (also known as Shandong Deribao Tire Co Ltd) Yuan Tingshu; Guangrao Shandong vice county magistrate Li Jianjun; and Bureau of Commerce of Guangrao County director and party secretary Zhu Hanqing. The delegation gave a presentation on the strengths of Guangrao County – a location described by Li as “an economic powerhouse within Shandong Province” and one of China’s major tyre and automotive accessory producing regions, as well as the host of China (Guangrao) International Rubber Tire & Auto Accessory Exhibition (ChinaGRTAE), which is due to be staged for the second time in 2011. Along with Tyres & Accessories and other representatives of the UK tyre trade, the delegation met with the NTDA’s Richard Edy and Peter Gaster, also of UK wholesaler Kings Road Tyres.
Interview: Retreading Key to Dunlop Aircraft Tyres Global Expansion
In its centenary year, Dunlop Aircraft Tyres is part of the way through an expansion plan designed to double the size of the company in terms of new tyres made. With a view to achieving this, the company has set up a joint venture in China with the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company, named Dunlop Taikoo. Before the recession hit the world’s economies, Dunlop AT had planned to set up a similar facility to cater to the North American market; plans that are still very much at the forefront of the current expansion strategy. It has also recently purchased tyre-making and testing equipment from Yokohama Rubber following the Japanese manufacturer’s decision to withdraw from aircraft tyre production at the end of March 2009. The purchase and installation of the equipment at Dunlop’s Fort Dunlop plant has enabled the Birmingham-based company almost immediate access to the Boeing 777 market for example, an aircraft used heavily in domestic flights.
