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The Alliance brand has gained a strong position in certain segments of Europe’s agricultural tyre market. Alliance Tire Europe claims a leadership market share of up to 30 per cent for row crop applications and a 20 to 30 per cent share for implement applications. But Alliance’s primary ambition is to break into the tractor segment in a bigger way. In recent months it introduced a couple of products to support this drive.
Michelin and Pirelli are leading the way on tyre and rubber sustainability, according to a recent report from Context Group. Context’s ranking assessed 11 members of the Tire Industry Project (TIP), namely Bridgestone; Continental; Cooper; Goodyear; Hankook; Kumho; Michelin; Pirelli; Sumitomo Rubber; Toyo and Yokohama.
Context analysed the sustainability content on each company’s website to see if it included communications covering some of the main issues associated with the life cycle impacts of tyres, including the four focus areas of the TIP: tyre and road wear particles, sustainable natural rubber, end-of-life tyres and environmental performance. The researchers assessed how well the companies tell their sustainability story by looking at their use of multimedia, news articles and social media.
GRI has upgraded its website (www.gritires.com). Now, according to the company, it features “streamlined navigation and recognizes the farmers, construction workers and forklift operators who move the world.”
Tym International will cease trading from 30 October 2020, effectively winding up the tyre import and wholesale business specialising in Far Eastern-produced and OTR tyres. Writing in a letter dated 8 September, managing director Steve Eke explained “the decision to cease has been forced upon the company by others that control the majority of the shares in the business”. Tyres & Accessories understands that the combination of recent business pressures caused by EU anti-dumping truck tyre tariffs and then coronavirus caused major shareholders to withdraw their investment.
There is no doubt that the all-season tyre segment is one of the fastest-growing in the European market, and it is not difficult to see why; while some countries routinely experience extreme weather conditions in the winter months, much of the continent does not suffer to the same extent. As such, many countries – such as the UK, for example – have never developed a strong winter tyre market.
The majority of industries across the UK have been impacted by the effect of COVID-19 and – with up to 60 per cent of garages closed during lockdown – the tyre industry is no exception. Prevailing market conditions combined with the complexity of the pandemic’s damage means that insurers have reduced their risk exposure and overall capacity. This, combined with newer pressures on the horizon, has provided tyre companies with a rationale for bolstering their risk management measures in order to avoid costly and time-consuming slip-ups down the line. Tyres & Accessories spoke with Ben Harrison, vice president, Marsh Commercial in order to find out more.
The University of Plymouth published government-funded research into what happens to particles released from vehicle tyres back in May. This comparatively recent report – as far as academic research is concerned – was launched with no-small media fanfare amid claims that tyres “could be a significant and previously largely unrecorded source of microplastics in the marine environment”. Be that as it may, the research also highlighted a number of significant knowledge gaps in this field of research.
4×4 tyre sales may have fallen due to the effects of coronavirus and lockdown, but prices in certain key sizes are actually higher than they were before those challenges presented themselves at the start of the year. Tyres & Accessories spoke to tyre market and pricing data experts Encircle Marketing in order to find out more.
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The launch of the second-line Laufenn brand onto the European commercial vehicle tyre market has rounded out Hankook’s offer to fleet customers. Offering a second tier brand – alongside a growing retreading programme via its Alphatread range – can both allow the manufacturer a more extensive product range to cater to each customer’s entire fleet, and also allow Hankook to capitalise on the growing interest in more value-oriented products. The new tyres, which give Laufenn itself impressive market coverage, also help to emphasise one of Hankook’s competitive advantages; the proportion of products under three years old in its TBR portfolio. The timing of the launch could also help to address the economic strife felt by the logistics sector in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Featured in the September issue of Tyres & Accessories, we spoke with Guy Heywood, Hankook’s European marketing and strategy director for its truck and bus business, and UK sales director Paul Emery about how the introduction of Laufenn will help to develop the tyre manufacturer’s commercial business in the UK and Europe.
BASF SE has signed an uptake supply agreement with New Energy, which specializes waste tyre pyrolysis and is headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. According to the agreement, New Energy will supply BASF with up to 4,000 metric tonnes of pyrolysis oil per year derived from waste tyres. In a pilot phase, the first volumes of the pyrolysis oil have already been used in BASF’s integrated chemical production site in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Scandinavian Enviro Systems AB is reporting a “dramatic increase in interest” the pyrolysis oil the company extracts from end-of-life tyres. According to the company, the oil has a high bio content due to the natural rubber in tyres and is therefore “of great interest to many players in the market because it could replace fossil-based alternatives”. This, in turn, is likely to help Enviro’s sales revenues. “Based on the market response and our own calculations, we judge that the oil recovered from end-of-life tyres could contribute to a strong increase of revenues from recycling plants that use our technology,” Thomas Sörensson, CEO of Enviro, explained.
In spite of COVID-19, Prinx Chengshan managed to increase its net profit in the first half of 2020, a feat aided in part by a prompt response to the pandemic. Sales revenue for Prinx Chengshan (Cayman) Holding Limited and its subsidiaries in the six months to 30 June 2020 came to RMB 2,844.0 million (£317.2 million), 1.0 per cent less than in the same period of 2019. Gross profit rose 9.9 per cent year-on-year to RMB 606.3 million (£66.7 million) and net profit increased 1.6 per cent to RMB 265.3 million (£29.2 million).
Staffordshire-based N.S. Clarke Transport has specified Michelin tyres as original equipment across 30 new Volvo FH 6×2 500hp tractors joining its fleet, praising the tyre company for its impressive pence per kilometre running costs and its innovative accidental damage guarantee.
BKT says it is “ready to take up the challenge” of developing tyres for the coming generation of self-driving and electric off-highway vehicles. The tyre maker is already addressing changes within the agricultural and construction sectors with a range of solutions, drawing upon its almost 30-year experience and in dialogue with end-users.
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