Jorge Crespo New Infinity Europe General Manager
Infinity Tyres Europe Ltd has appointed Jorge Crespo as the company’s new European general manager. Crespo joins Infinity following nine years at Cooper Tire Europe where, as sales and marketing director, he was a board member. Prior to joining the Cooper Avon operation in Melksham, Crespo worked in the rubber compounding industry. However, having trained as a solicitor before entering the business world, he also brings a level of legal awareness into his new management position. Crespo took up his new role on 4 January.
Continue ReadingHow to Negotiate Production Over Chinese New Year
With varying reports of a product shortage and increasing raw material and shipping costs, how do companies sourcing products from China expedite production when the workers in the People’s Republic down tools for two weeks over Chinese New Year? Mould maker Bluestar recently contacted Tyres & Accessories offering the following advice.
Continue ReadingInvestments Signal Maxxis’ Competitive Intentions
When financial analysts said that 2009 was a “banner year” for Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co., Ltd. in a report published back in May, the market watchers weren’t overstating the facts. But in 2010, when the 2009 results were made public, the Taiwan-based tyre manufacturer which is responsible for the Maxxis brand and Maxxis International companies, announced plans for two new factories, an international standard proving ground and some high profile OE contracts. It was also the year that saw the company move into 10th place in Tyres & Accessories’ annual ranking of tyre manufacturing companies. With all this in mind T&A recently visited Cheng Shin/Maxxis’ Kunshan tyre production plant near Shanghai, China and asked if 2010 was the real breakthrough for Maxxis? And if so what happens next?
Continue ReadingCooper Tire Increases Mexico Investments
On January 1, Cooper Tire & Rubber increased its level of ownership in its affiliated Mexican operation from 38 to 58 per cent. The tyre maker states this increased ownership in Corporacion de Occidente SA de CV. has been made as part of its long-term strategy to produce high quality yet cost competitive products. As a result of this transaction, the Mexican entity will be fully consolidated in the company’s financial results for this year.
Continue ReadingMalaysian Distributor Visits Federal Tyres
More than 30 guests of A-One Tyres, Federal Tyre's sole distributor in Malaysia, recently attended a training weekend in Chungli, Taiwan.
Continue ReadingPirelli Renews Slatina Hospital Aid Programme
Three years ago, Pirelli launched a programme to assist staff at the Hospital of Slatina, a facility located near the company’s Romanian car and light truck tyre plant. Since this time the Italian tyre maker has contributed towards the professional training of more than 120 doctors and nurses, who have benefitted from assistance provided by Milan’s Niguarda Hospital Ca’ Granda. Pirelli’s support of the Slatina hospital has now been renewed with the signing of an agreement to expand and extend the programme to 2013.
Continue ReadingWikileaks: Diplomats Bemoaned US Tyre Tariff Decision
While the majority of the 250,000 documents contained in the largest leak of government records in American history focus on diplomatic and political commentaries written by the US ambassadorial network, at least one of the wires published by the Wikileaks website sheds light on behind the scenes discussions on the Obama decision to impose import tariffs on Chinese-made tyres. A document dated 29 September 2009 and classified as secret, reports that US deputy secretary of state James B Steinberg (Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s chief adviser) discussed the tyre tariffs alongside policy objectives for Iran and North Korea with Chinese foreign minister He Yafei.
Continue ReadingReifen China 2010 Had 39% More Visitors
For the fourth time in its history, Reifen China welcomed floods of visitors through the doors of the Shanghai New International Expo Center on 25 November where over 100 exhibitors from some of the country's leading suppliers and traders were waiting to share details of the latest products and business developments. The headline news is that by the end of this year’s show on 27 November, Reifen China had attracted a total of 9356 trade visitors from 75 countries – an increase of over 39 per cent compared with the previous year (2009: 6,693).
Continue ReadingShaanxi Yanchang Considering PCR Plant
Heard of Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Rubber Co., Ltd? We hadn’t either before last year’s Reifen China in Shanghai. However, after our brief introduction at last year’s show this year the company returned to the exhibition with another substantial stand in a similarly prime position. This time round company representatives brought with them news that despite being founded as recently as December 2008, it is already well on the well to producing 1 million truck tyres a year at its Xianyang truck tyre production plant. With the company's passenger car radial line due to break ground in 2013, this could be a production base to watch.
Continue ReadingSuntrac Brand Makes its Debut, PCR Line to Follow
One brand Tyres & Accessories met for the first time in Shanghai (at the recent Reifen China exhibition) was Suntrac, which is produced by Dubai-based Sun Global Fzco at partner factories in China and a joint venture in Sri Lanka. The company also produces Nison brand truck and bus tyres which, a brand that was established nearly six years ago. Currently the business focuses on the manufacturing and international distribution of bias and radial light truck, truck and bus, and off-the-road tyres distributed globally under the Suntrac name. However executive director Nitesh Shewakramani told T&A that the company plans to launch a comprehensive range of PCR & SUV as well as solid and implement tyres by mid 2011. Product wise the company currently offers over 20 different truck fitments across 16 different tread patterns.
Continue ReadingPirelli JV to Take Over Sibur Russian Tyre Assets
Pirelli has agreed to take over the assets of Sibur Russian Tyres after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Russian Technologies and oil major Sibur Holding in Moscow on Friday 26 November. The deal, which is likely to position Pirelli as major player in the Russian market, comes after domestic market leader Niznekamskshina, (owned by another oil major, Tatneft) confirmed it had been in merger talks with Sibur in August. However, the latest MOU even goes as far as leaving the door open for a partnership that may offer Pirelli “a further opportunity for development and consolidation through the possible acquisition of or merger with Nizhnekamskshina.”
Continue ReadingTrading Places: How Tyre-Makers are Positioning Themselves in the World Economy
As Tyres & Accessories' November issue went to press President Barrack Obama and David Cameron were out banging the drum for American and British business in India and China respectively. 24 hours after Obama set foot in the subcontinent, the Sunday Telegraph's resident cartoonist was portraying the leaders of two of the richest countries in the western world as beggers seeking scraps from two so-called “emerging markets.”
Continue ReadingNexen Aiming to Produce 20 million Tyres in Qingdao by 2017
Nexen’s Qingdao, China tyre production plant, which started manufacturing tyres in 2008, will soon enter the black and could be producing as many as 20 million tyres a year by 2017. Korean tyre manufacturer Nexen Tire published the latest details in a recent internal newsletter emailed to staff and customers, where the factory’s management also gave details of Nexen’s plans for the plant. Based on a site one hour’s drive north of Qingdao Airport in Shandong Province, China, Nexen representatives describe their most modern plant to date (the firm broke ground on a further plant in Gyeongnam Province, South Korea on 24 June 2010) as the company’s “ambitious masterpiece.” With output currently reported to be 6 million truck, bus and car radials a year and bearing in the mind the fact that it already occupies a 530,000 square metre area with further expansion still to come, it is clearly a significant operation.
Continue ReadingIndonesia/Malaysia Home to Thriving Tyre Retail Markets
As the Asian region’s car parc continues to swell in the wake of economic recovery, the demand for aftermarket products and services is also said to be increasing. GfK Asia, which conducts retail audits in the automotive aftermarket in major Asian cities like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila and Seoul, recently looked into the relationship between car “populations” in these cities relative to the number tyre servicing garages and compared the saturation levels in differing economies. While each tyre servicing garage in developing cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila serviced an average of 2250 vehicles, this figure is almost halved, at 1172:1 in a “developed” city such as Seoul. The Malaysian figure is almost four times the 674:1 average ratio GfK published in April 2009.
Continue ReadingUS and China Both Claim WTO Victory in Tariff Dispute
The United States claimed victory in a recent trade spat with China over anti-dumping charges placed on imports pipes, tubes, OTR tyres and sacks. US Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk told the AFP news agency that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had broadly upheld Washington's right to place duties on goods from China that were unfairly subsidised: "This is a significant win for American workers and businesses affected by unfairly traded imports.” Nevertheless a report produced by China’s Xinhua news agency suggests the People’s Republic would like to present the 22 October WTO ruling as falling in its favour. China welcomed the fact that the WTO found that the US imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on four types of Chinese imports was inconsistent with WTO regulations, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said a day after the ruling was published.
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