Goodyear wins “Chassis Supplier of the Year” from Fiat Chrysler
On 7 December 2017, at the annual supplier conference at the Auditorium G. Agnelli Lingotto in Turin (Italy), Goodyear was awarded Chassis Supplier of the Year by the famous Italian-American car manufacturer Fiat Chrysler Automobiles EMEA. It is the first time a tyremaker has received the award.
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Carnegie Fuels recommends Michelin’s X Works rugged tyre range following trial
Scottish fuel firm Carnegie Fuels typically delivers to farms, industrial areas and residential properties that can often only be accessed on rocky off-road terrain – putting the 6x2 rigid tanker fleet’s fitments at an increased risk of stone cuts and ingress. Following a visit from one of Michelin’s Technical Managers, Dan Lamb, last summer, owner Kevin Carnegie agreed to trial sets of Michelin X Works D drive axle tyres and XZY3 steer and tag axle fitments on two of his 13 delivery vehicles.
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Michelin the number one consumer researched tyre brand: Tyre Reviews
Consumers are increasingly likely to research their tyres online pre-purchase, regardless of whether they complete an e-commerce transaction. Peer review website Tyre Reviews has therefore become an influential destination in the car tyre market: discussing Tyre Reviews’s audience, owner, Jonathan Benson, states that 94 per cent of Tyre Reviews visitors are engaged in the tyre buying process, with its users predominantly “high earning, well educated, male automotive enthusiasts looking for the best possible product for their vehicle.” In 2017, the site delivered 25 million pageviews to tyre buyers, and claims to have influenced around “one-sixth of UK tyre sales.”
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Latest Kumho eco tyre leads 2018 UK car tyre range
Kumho has introduced its latest eco tyre, the Ecowing ES31, to the UK market, joining its high performance Ecsta range. The new tyre will gradually replace the established KH27, and is available initially in a total of 38 14 to 17 inch sizes, almost 70 percent of which carry a B label grade for rolling resistance. The sizes including all the key fitments for such best-selling small and medium-sized hatchbacks and saloons as the VW Polo and Golf, Fiat 500, Audi A1, A2, A3 and A4, BMW 1 and 2 Series, Peugeot 208 and Renault Clio.
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Swedish concept partner Colmec plans further expansion
Colmec is undoubtedly one of Europe’s largest retreaders. With annual production exceeding 150,000 retreaded truck tyres, the company is a market leader in Sweden – the company’s home market – and also active in Poland, Norway and Finland. The company’s full-offer concept has evolved over the years and now includes mould cure retreads, which are sold in the above four markets under the Colmec EcoTire brand name. As we learned from company owner Peter Eckerström and his management team during a visit to the Colmec retreading facility in Poland, which was recently expanded in collaboration with Kraiburg Austria, further changes are also on the way, including a potential entry into the large German market.
Continue Reading![Car tyre market growing in [rim] size](https://www.tyrepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/gfk-image.jpg)
Car tyre market growing in [rim] size
The car tyre market is growing in size – at least in terms of rim diameter. According to the latest UK car tyre market sell-out data produced by market research specialists GfK, 39 per cent of market is now made up of 17-inch and larger rim diameter products. And what’s more the trend points to continued growth. The GfK Point of Sales Tracking data compares figures from January to December 2016 with those from January 2017 to December 2017 in order to produce the comparisons published here.
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Car tyre prices recover in 2017, but still catching up
A year after we predicted that car tyre prices would rise during 2017 as part of last year’s car tyre feature, the latest data provided by tyre market research specialists Encircle Marketing shows that prices are indeed recovering. However, while tyre prices recovered to 2016 levels during 2017, there is still some way to go before average prices reach 2015 levels. Encircle’s latest figures examine the shape of the traditional tyre retail market and the online tyre market.
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Tractor 70 & 85 spearheading Continental’s agricultural business comeback
It really isn’t a long time since Continental committed itself to return to the agricultural tyre segment. Within the space of four years, the company has developed the first products for its new portfolio, chosen and equipped a production site and recruited a team to further develop, sell and service the new range. The first Continental-made and branded agricultural tyres to see the light of day since 2004, the Tractor70 and Tractor85, publicly debuted at the Agritechnica show last November and are now available in the UK and European markets. Tyres & Accessories spoke with two founding members of the Continental agricultural team about the new products and the tyre maker’s agri market re-entry.
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Micheldever to supply Sumitomo brand tyres, marks a year since change of ownership
As we go to print on the December issue of Tyres & Accessories, Micheldever Group is marking a year since Sumitomo Rubber Industries, manufacturer of Falken Tyres for which MTS is UK distributor, bought the UK tyre distributor from previous owner Graphite Capital Management. While the sale was not unexpected, the identity of the new owner may have been somewhat surprising, though SRI’s investment in Falken Tyre Europe following the late-2015 dissolution of its alliance agreement with Goodyear makes the acquisition of a leading distributor a logical move. For Micheldever’s board, SRI was said to be an attractive new owner, with the presumption that it would offer offering longevity, stability, and consistency; as a large, well-established, high quality top-six tyre manufacturer seeking to broaden its knowledge of UK distribution with an already successful business.
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Why combustion engines won’t disappear just yet
In our August edition, this column examined how “the clocking is ticking for combustion engines”, which also means the clock is ticking for conventional tyres designed with combustion engine-centric vehicles in mind. Four months later, both points are true. However, there are also significant challenges facing this market development that also warrant our attention. Two of the obstacles between the status quo and the electric vehicle car parc of the future are charging points and technological recall risk.
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The Chinese tyre industry wants to move from biggest to best
Talk to westerners and they see China as a relative newcomer to the global tyre industry table. Talk to Chinese people and they may just point out that China has been the world’s leading tyre producing nation since 2005. Indeed, full-year 2016 figures show that 600 million tyres were “made in China”, many of which were passenger car and light truck products. However, China now wants to move on from its reputation as being the biggest tyre producing nation and progress towards a renewed emphasis on quality and technology. Tyres & Accessories spoke with Mary Xu, the China Rubber Industry Association (CRIA) deputy secretary general, in order to find out more about how the Chinese tyre industry wants to move from biggest to best.
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Falken, Liverpool FC discuss tyre-football partnership and synergies
Falkens status as the official tyre partner of Liverpool Football Club is one of the latest in an extended series of tyre and football partnerships. Tyres & Accessories took the opportunity of Falken’s first event at Anfield to ask director and senior executive officer, Sumitomo Rubber Industries Yutaka Kuroda and chief commercial officer and managing director at Liverpool FC Billy Hogan to illustrate how the partnership will be used to benefit both parties. In addition to the particular synergies between the club and tyre brand, their answers also illustrate why there has been such a boom in partnerships between top-tier football clubs and tyres in recent years.
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