Chinese tyre makers off-shoring in Southeast Asia
At the end of May, anti-Chinese truck tyre tariffs were implemented. They included nominal (as opposed to percentage) tariffs at levels that surprised many. As a result, supply shortages and challenges at distributors were predicted. Shuttering of some of the lowest cost Chinese tyremakers is also expected. However, speaking to affected firms during the recent Tire Cologne reveals that many are already prepared to source tyres elsewhere. Indeed, the largest manufacturers have been off-shoring for some time. As a result, virtually all the leading Chinese tyre manufacturers already have non-Chinese tyre production in place. Let’s take a look at who’s got what.
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New-tyre/retread combination wins Ashcourt over to Continental tyres
Almost two years has passed since Continental Tyres bought Britain’s largest independent retreader Bandvulc tyres. While the integration has gone smoothly by all accounts, the shape of the market has changed significantly. First, we have to acknowledge that the acquisition has put both Continental’s new and retreaded products in a much stronger position than before. For example, the decision to offer Uniroyal through Bandvulc gave the retreader’s strong fleet business better access to Continental group new products, while at the same time significantly increasing Conti’s domestic retreading capabilities.
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Prinx Chengshan setting up Malaysia tyre factory
Less than two years after Prinx Chengshan Europe came into being, the company has already sold quantities of tyres numbering in the millions across Europe. Not only that, but the Chinese-based firm has also invested in a manufacturing base in Malaysia during the same period of time. Tyres & Accessories met up with European managing director Ivan Majsky and the rest of the European sales and marketing team at Tire Cologne in order to find out more.
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Tariffs support retread revival bid
The rise of low-cost Chinese truck tyre imports in Europe has been well documented in the pages of various issues of our ongoing series of Retreading Special supplements. The resultant risks affecting the industry have led to pan-European awareness-raising and lobbying efforts at a European level. This in turn resulted in a European Commission (EC) investigating and on the impact of Chinese truck tyre imports on European retread sales, which began late last year. Then product registration began in February 2018. The latest news marks something of a victory for retreaders in their bid to revive the business as now we know that tariffs of between 52.85 euros and 82.17 euros per tyre are being applied to all truck and bus radials imported into Europe from China.
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Micheldever/Protyre moves up to fourth, Lodge Tyres jumps in retail rankings
In last year’s ranking of the top tyre retailers in the UK, Tyres & Accessories predicted that the pace of change in the top 20 chains by branch count would result in some jostling for position. This has proved entirely accurate, as two major acquisitions have brought two of 2017’s top 20 into the fold of higher ranked companies, leading to both Micheldever/Protyre, leapfrogging HiQ into fourth place as predicted last year, and Lodge Tyre, into the top 10 from joint-14th last year, making significant jumps in this year’s table. Most other retailers have held relatively stable positions in terms of the number of stores, while our most recent additions to the table, Eden Tyres (15 stores) and Elite Garages (13) were identified as narrowly missing out on places last year.
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Fintyre acquisition shows fast-growing firm is ‘doing OK’
European finTyre Distribution (EFD) has been growing rapidly since its private equity owners Bain Capital backed the acquisition of Italian tyre wholesaler Fintyre back in March 2017. Since then the company has been on the acquisition trail, buying Pneusmarket and Franco Gomma in Italy as well as Reiff and most recently Reifen Krieg in Germany – all in order to build a “European tyre distribution group”. Tyres & Accessories recently spoke with Fintyre managing director Mauro Pessi and asked who’s next and what’s the exit plan?
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US tyre cord makers could close due to steel tariffs
In mid-June US president Donald Trump announced plans to impose 25 per cent tariffs on US$50 billion worth of Chinese goods. However, the above round of tariffs was actually an additional wave that followed as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing trade war with China. Steel is at the centre of this dispute, with President Trump suggesting that China is dumping steel in America. But now US tyre cord makers could close due to steel tariffs.
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Cimcorp doubles building footprint in Finland production and office expansion
In May Cimcorp, the Finland-based manufacturer and integrator of turnkey robotic gantry-based order fulfilment and tire-handling solutions, shared construction plans to expand its production and office facilities at its headquarters in Ulvila, Finland. The new facilities will be built on 8,500 square metres of land, bought by Cimcorp in August 2017, nearly doubling the footprint of its current 9,500-square-metre space. The expansion will enable the company to accommodate its continuing business growth with greater capacity and efficiency, as well as incorporate new space for research and development.
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Vacu-Lug becomes Hankook Alphatread UK retread partner
Vacu-Lug has become the new retread manufacturing partner for Hankook in the UK. The company signalled its new status by including the manufacturer’s Alphatread retreading brand on its stand at the Commercial Vehicle Show (24-26 April, Birmingham NEC), coinciding with the beginning of production of the Alphatread bead-to-bead retread truck tyre range at the Vacu-Lug factory in Grantham.
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Growth in every size segment from 17” up, but rapidly slowing
The UK’s high performance tyre sector – in this case defined by tyre diameters of 17” and above – has continued its growth trend, but at a very much slower rate than in 2017.
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Falken 2017/2018 UHP test successes a result of manufacturing improvements
Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ Falken brand has reached new levels of performance over the past few years, evinced by its latest range of high performance car tyres picking up magazine test plaudits against premium brand competition.
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Victra Sport 5 UHP tyre to take Maxxis ‘to the next level’
Maxxis’s new Victra Sport 5 received its full launch at The Tire Cologne, as the June issue of Tyres & Accessories went to press (see Tyres & Accessories July issue for a more in-depth write-up). The new tyre is the latest in the brand’s range to target premium brand performance at a lower cost.
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Sainsbury’s, Asda and truck tyre tariffs
At the end of April the UK’s second largest supermarket Sainsbury’s announced that it is merging with the Walmart-owned Asda supermarket. The goal? To push first-placed Tesco off the top-spot and to give the newly combined chain better access to different geographic areas and consumers. Strange as it may seem at first glance, this story can be read across to the tyre market in general and the truck tyre segment in particular (click here for complete coverage on developments associated with the recently initiated European anti-Chinese truck tyre import tariffs).
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