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Giti Tire was “delighted” to reengage with its business partners and exhibit its revised product line-up at The Tire Cologne 2022. For the company’s European operation, the show represented the end of “a four year vacuum”, allowing employees and customers from around Europe, the Middle East and Africa to assemble, building “a platform for future success”.
When Nexen Tire first threw its hat into the ring of Europe’s all-season tyre market a decade ago, most motorists – and most tyre makers – considered these products best suited to smaller cars with just a handful of horses under the bonnet. Product development has brought all-season tyres a long way since then, and attitudes have changed too. So it was that when Nexen recently launched its latest tyre for this segment, there wasn’t a single dimension for runabouts or city cars to be seen.
Bridgestone has launched Fleetcare, the tyre manufacturer’s integrated tyre and fleet management solution. The new solution represents an evolution of Bridgestone’s Total Tyre Care, combining Bridgestone tyres and tyre management solutions with fleet management solutions from Webfleet. Bridgestone says Fleetcare offers a “complete package” of efficiency tools targeting the reduction of total cost of ownership from a single mobility partner.
Visitors to The Tire Cologne had the opportunity to see to Giti Tire’s growing product portfolio. Highlights included Giti Radial’s latest UHP tyre, the SportActive 2, as well as extensions to the GT Radial FE2 performance range. The Giti brand was well represented, too, with the Giti4x4 AT71 heralding a return to the all-terrain segment in the UK.
Linglong Tires has confirmed earlier reports that trial tyre production at the company’s Serbia tyre manufacturing plant will commence by the end of the first half of 2022. In other words, the first tyres will roll off the Chinese tyre manufacturer’s Serbian production line by the end of June. Mass production is the next stop. However, since the first date refers to trial production, Tyres & Accessories understands that it will take till around August for the factory to achieve more deliverable output volumes.
China’s economy appears to have stalled since 2022. Recent data shows that the value-added of the manufacturing fell by 4.6 per cent year-on-year in April. An integral part of the national manufacturing machine, China’s tyre industry is also under pressure. “The most important task of our enterprise at this stage is to survive,” one Shandong tyre factory owner told Tyres & Accessories.
An ice cream van was parked in front of the door when Tyres & Accessories visited Direct Tyre Management’s (DTM) new Blackpool headquarters in mid-May. At the same time, staff were presented with sticks of rock, buckets and spades and were enjoying food together. The reason? The DTM team were celebrating the official opening of the company’s Blackpool HQ and executives were welcoming staff to the new location a few miles up the road from the previous offices in Skelmersdale. Beyond the team-building benefits of the celebrations, the relocation itself illustrates how DTM has developed from a niche player into a fast-growing digital fleet technology business. Tyres & Accessories met with chief technology officer Dominic Clark and sales manager Simon Makin in order to find out more.
Founded in France in 1971, Point S Group is now present in 48 countries across four continents. Point S officially launched in the UK in 2011 and therefore celebrated a decade on these shores last year. Just as Tyres & Accessories was on-hand when pre-launch discussions were taking place on the fringes of the Reifen Essen show back in 2010, while the market prepared for Tire Cologne 2022, we caught up with network manager Wayne Daniel in order to find out more.
JK Tyre & Industries intends to significantly increase its capacity to produce passenger car tyres. During an earnings call this month, managing director Anshuman Singhania confirmed that the tyre maker’s Board of Directors has approved an Rs 5.3 billion (£54.0 million) expansion of PCR capacity at its Banmore plant. Along with a recently commissioned debottlenecking programme, this will increase PCR capacity there by 35 per cent from its current level of around 9 million tyres per annum.
An opening ceremony took place on 25 May for the largest proving ground in Asia, Hankook Technoring. Hankook Tire & Technology says the facility in Taean, South Korea will serve as a state-of-the-art research and development centre for its “most advanced products to come.”
Pirelli has doubled the total number of tyre approvals on electric and plug-in hybrid cars in 2021. According to the company, car manufacturers are increasingly choosing this technology and have allowed Pirelli to expand the homologation portfolio to more than 250 total homologations on ‘green’ cars since the launch of the ‘Elect’ EV-specific marking in 2019. For example, the Audi A6 Avant e-tron concept, exhibited in the Pirelli stand at the “Tire Cologne”.
Pirelli is displaying its most cutting-edge products that contribute to more sustainable mobility at its stand at The Tire Cologne 2022 (Hall 6.1, Stand A020-B029). “With its appearance at Tire Cologne 2022, Pirelli is underlining its leading position as a high-performance development partner of leading automobile manufacturers for the original equipment of tyres for their models from the premium and prestige segments,” says Wolfgang Meier, chairman of the management board of Pirelli Deutschland GmbH. “In addition, we present ourselves as an attractive and reliable partner of the tyre trade and as a company that is aware of its responsibility for the environment and climate.”
Hankook has signed a five-year agreement to produce Hankook Alphatread retreaded tyres in the UK. The tyre manufacturer wants to expand the Alphatread brand as part of its commercial vehicle tyre strategy. Vaculug is one of Europe’s largest independent retread producers, and first became Hankook’s retreading partner in the UK in 2018. The retreader will also work with Hankook products as a premium fitment for all its fleets.
Lincolnshire-based Tathwell Farms has taken delivery of a New Holland T7.270 tractor and a Horsch Avatar 6.16 drill, both fitted with Michelin’s latest generation agricultural tyres, as part of an ongoing strategy to protect its soil and boost the sustainability of its operation. Supplied by local dealer Lincolnshire Motors, the T7.270 will be the farm’s new frontline tractor and has been specified with Michelin AxioBib 2 VF 600/60 R30 & VF 710/60 R42 tyres. The Horsch drill has been converted onto Michelin TrailXBib VF 710/50 R26.5 fitments, following a recommendation from Michelin agricultural account manager, Ian Whitwell.
The 2022 DTM Trophy gets underway this weekend at the Lausitzring, with Hankook supplying its high-end Ventus Race tyres, as it has since the series’ inception in 2020. The “talent factory” for touring car racing will feature seven rounds. Hankook says the series continues its commitment to youth development, an important element of its motorsport commitments. Drivers from 11 countries will compete in 20 production-based GT sports cars from the opening round of the 2022 DTM Trophy in Lower Lusatia (20-22 May). Manufacturers include Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche and Toyota. Among the racers is sole female entrant, Sophie Hofmann from Waldenburg; the 23-year-old made her DTM Trophy debut last year. Hankook also supplies the single-seater all-female W Series.
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