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Pirelli’s second test session of 2025 got underway yesterday at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, the track located near the Spanish town of Granollers. Having already taken part in the two-day session at Paul Ricard, McLaren F1 Racing was again working with Pirelli on 2026 tyre development, joined this time by Scuderia Ferrari HP.
An automotive retail centre in Taunton has become the first in the UK to adopt Bridgestone’s ‘e-CENTRE’ concept. At Protyre Autocare, located within the Crown Industrial Estate, the aim is to revolutionise the way that vehicles are catered for with a sustainable approach to car maintenance.
Bridgestone has taken a further step towards digitalising the tyre development process with the acquisition of a new driver-in-the-loop (DiL) simulator for its EMEA R&D Centre in Rome, Italy. The unit enables Bridgestone to combine tyre and vehicle simulations with artificial intelligence technologies, reducing time to market and making the tyre development process a more sustainable one.
Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook) has announced its financial results for 2024, reporting global consolidated sales of KRW 9.4119 trillion (£5.1765 billion) and an operating profit of KRW 1.7622 trillion (£969.2 million). This represents a 5.3 per cent increase in sales and a 32.7 per cent rise in operating profit compared to the previous year.
Orion S.A., which makes carbon black, has signed a long-term supply agreement with Contec S.A., which will provide Orion tyre pyrolysis oil to produce circular carbon black for tire and rubber goods customers. The agreement with Warsaw, Poland-based Contec further enables Orion to diversify its sources of tyre pyrolysis oil, commonly known as TPO.
Continental extended its ContiLifeCycle concept in 2024, launching another two fully retreadable Generation 5 tyre lines. The Conti Eco Gen 5 for long-distance and regional haulage and the Conti Urban HA 5 for urban buses feature low rolling resistance and long lifespan, with both improvements made without restricting the recyclability of the casings. Conti designed the new products with a cradle-to-grave approach, considering retreadability and cost-effectiveness. The tyres also offer increased integration with digital fleet management. Hinnerk Kaiser, head of product development EMEA at Continental, explained: “All Generation 5 tyres are fitted with an RFID chip. They can also be factory fitted with tyre sensors as an option, and so are part of the ContiConnect digital tyre management solution.” The tyres complement the newly launched Conti EfficientPro 5 drive and steer (see Tyres & Accessories February 2025 for more details).
With a population of around 170 million people in 2024, Bangladesh is the eighth most populous country in the world. With over 70 per cent of the country’s land devoted to agriculture and another 11 per cent forest, most of Bangladesh’s population can be found in densely populated areas. At the same time, it is one of the world's fastest-growing emerging market economies. The country's economic growth is contested, but the CIA world factbook puts it at US$1.413 trillion in 2023, up from $1.336 trillion in 2022 and $1.248 trillion in 2021. In other words, the country has bounced back strongly in the post-pandemic environment. Textiles are Bangladesh’s biggest export and the US (18%), Germany (16%), the UK (8%), Spain (7%) and Poland (6%) were the biggest export destinations in 2022.
In addition to Strategic Dialogues and a Competitive Compass, The European Union is developing a Single Market Strategy for 2025 as part of its response to strong external competition. The European Commission is tasked with creating a horizontal single market strategy by June 2025, the aim being to address market fragmentation and present a roadmap with clear timelines and actions. The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers Association (ETRMA) views the Single Market Strategy as a “great opportunity” to address the “significant challenges” tyre makers face in maintaining a competitive manufacturing presence in Europe.
Making good on his earlier promise to impose levies on Chinese, Canadian and Mexican-produced goods entering the USA, President Donald Trump announced over the weekend of 1-2 February that he is indeed implementing tariffs of 10 per cent on Chinese goods and 25 per cent on good coming from Canada and Mexico effective 4 February 2025. That news was followed up with suggestions of further tariffs against the European Union “soon”. The combination of the two actions sent European share prices downwards, with automotive industry shares particularly affected. Here we take a look at how the tariffs might affect vehicle makers and those that supply them.
Bridgestone Corporation will pilot the pyrolysis process for recycling end-of-life tyres within a new demonstration plant at its Seki production site together with Eneos Corporation and supported by the Japanese government’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Starting construction work in November 2025, the partners aim to bring this plant into operation in September 2027 with a capacity to process 7,500 tonnes of tyres annually.
Pirelli has issued its latest Tyre Market Watch, which covers global original equipment and replacement tyre markets in December 2024 and the entirety of last year. The overall picture was one of resilience, with mixed results recorded across regions and segments.
The organiser of the FIA World Rally Championship has shared the “widespread praise” the series’ new exclusive tyre supplier has gained following its “impressive debut” at Rallye Monte-Carlo. WRC Promoter GmbH reports that in spite of the event being known for its “unpredictable stage conditions, ranging from dry to ice-patched asphalt,” Hankook “rose to the occasion” by delivering a range of newly developed tyres that “impressed drivers and teams across the service park.”
Reducing costs and protecting the environment – these two trends are decisive in the growing market for off-the-road (OTR) tyres. And therefore, according to Rema Tip Top, the company’s repair system for such speciality tyres is becoming increasingly important:
"We enable the construction and mining industries to significantly extend the service life of their tyres through safe, cost-effective and environmentally friendly repairs," says Matthias Ziller, Global Application & Product Management Automotive at Rema Tip Top AG.
When Michelin managing partner Florent Menegaux spoke of an “invasion” of tyre imports in Europe from low production cost markets in a plea to the continent’s legislatures for assistance in “levelling the playing-field” (see the Editorial and Company section in this issue for more details), his words may have seemed hyperbolic and emotive. After all, many of the exporters he referred to – largely in Asia and, as we shall see, most prevalently in China – have a total turnover beneath the world’s largest tyre manufacturer’s famously large billion-euro research and development budget. Yet examining the latest available import figures from leading tyre industry analyst, Astutus Research, it is clear that the last three years have seen an increase in imports, with a jump in the first 11 months (available at time of writing) of 2024 that is worth closer examination.
People often throw around terms like "thought leadership" without the accompanying evidence to make an impact. However, every once in a while, an example of thought leadership emerges by itself. The recent appearance of Michelin chief executive Florent Menegaux before a hearing of the French Economic Commission feels like that.
What stands out from the hearing is that Michelin is overtly facing both the hard realities of lost market share as well as the difficulties of being competitive while manufacturing in mature Western markets. At the same time the company is fighting back against what it calls an “invasion” of low-cost imports with requests for a more level playing field – i.e. legislation balancing competition with lower cost import markets as well as standard-raising rules and with technological advances in both its products and its manufacturing processes.
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