Africa
Qingdao Fullrun Tyre Corp. claims to be China’s largest tyre exporter, and has set itself the goal ten million tyres per annum by 2015. Last year the company’s turnover increased almost 43 per cent to US$400 million. Its main brands are Fullrun, AnTyre, Fullway, AutoGrip, AderenZa and TurnPike, and these are sold in more than 100 countries.
Ten years is a long time in the tyre industry. A decade ago, virtually nobody knew the name Sailun; hardly surprising, as the Chinese firm had yet to produce its first tyre. The company was established in November 2002 and the first Sailun truck tyre – a S816 pattern tyre in size 10.00R20 – was manufactured in 2003. In the following years Sailun has undergone phenomenal growth, and the firm’s original truck tyre factory has been joined by passenger car radial, OTR tyre and retreading plants. A further major stride in the company’s history took place last year when Sailun embarked on an initial public offering, which is said to have raised around RMB 1 billion (£100 million) – funds the company is drawing on for new capital expenditure projects. In September, just two months’ shy of Sailun’s tenth anniversary, Tyres & Accessories was given the opportunity to visit the tyre maker’s facility and new headquarters in Qingdao and talk about Sailun’s significant current and planned developments.
When Tyres & Accessories visited Nankang’s stand at CITExpo, Caysha Mai from the company’s export department was able to report that Nankang’s changeover to a new corporate identity, which began in 2010, is almost complete. “The new identity includes a modified logo and a new slogan – free your way,” she shared. “This means have a smooth ride.”
Eastman Industries Limited was present at CITExpo with its ‘Addo India’ tyre and battery brand. The company, which is headquartered in Ludhiana, in India’s Punjab state, produces and supplies a wide range of passenger car, truck, industrial OTR and agricultural tyres.
Beijing-based Best Choice International Trade Co. was present at CITExpo with its Mazzini and Sunew private brands. Sales manager Stephen Wu commented that visitors from the Middle East and Asia had shown “a lot of interest” during the show. These are currently the most active regions for Best Choice, Wu added; Europe is “quieter at the moment.”
Visitors to September’s CITExpo show in Shanghai were able to spot Austyre Australia’s stand from afar, as a larger-than-life inflatable kangaroo greeted anyone who stopped by. But Austyre Australia had more on offer than just air-filled macropods – the Dandenong-based company is the firm behind the Austyre brand of passenger car, light truck, UHP, SUV and truck tyres.
Although Dongying Zhongyi Rubber Co. Ltd has been around since 2004, the Shandong Province, China-based company is a relative newcomer to the tyre business. It wasn’t until 2010 that the first tyre was produced at Dongying Zhongyi’s plant near Qingdao, but since then annual output of the company’s two brands – CH-Noble and Joyroad – has reached 3.5 million units a year.
It makes no sense at all for a distributor to ship Chinese-made tyres to Europe and then re-export them around the world, and for this very reason Danish tyre and wheel supplier NDI (Nordisk Dæk Import A/S) recently decided to establish a local operation in China. NDI China was established in May 2012 with the signing of a cooperative agreement between NDI and the local government in Beiguan, Jiaozhou City, which is located near the major port of Qingdao.
The Aufine Group says it “enjoyed a very active and successful” CITExpo show this year, with a great deal of interest from visitors. Speaking with Tyres & Accessories at the Shanghai show, company general manager David Sun says that although he’d observed signs of the current global economic situation amongst people he’d met during the exhibition, the Aufine team nevertheless met new contacts and held meetings that offer a good chance for new business relationships.
The third generation of commercial vehicle tyres Continental is displaying at this week’s IAA Commercial Vehicles show has been described by the German manufacturer as the “most comprehensive product offensive for truck and bus tyres in the over 140-year history of the Hanover-based tyre manufacturer.” Continental says that from mid-2013 it will successively switch over all of its steering axle, drive axle, trailer and bus tyres across the world to new third generation products.
Visitors to the MINExpo show in the US were given a chance to get up close with Michelin’s newest earthmover line, the XDR2. This range, which replaces the XDR, is intended for the market’s largest rigid dump trucks and is claimed to improve safety while enabling users to improve their productivity and optimise environmental performance.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries has confirmed reports made by Japanese and Turkish media regarding a new joint venture company in Turkey. The Japanese firm says it will hold 80 per cent equity in a joint venture with Abdulkadir Özcan Otomotiv Lastik. An agreement was signed between the two companies on 21 September, and the yet to be named operation will be established next month. Sumitomo Rubber reports that the joint venture is being set up with initial capital of US$30 million and will involve a total investment of around $500 million. This sum will cover the cost of building a greenfield passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyre factory in Çankiri, Turkey.
According to George Rietbergen, when Goodyear Dunlop releases a new tyre-related innovation, it doesn’t do so because it wants to release something ‘sexy’ – it has to be a meaningful innovation, one that will help its customers reduce costs and improve safety. A product that fits squarely into this category is Goodyear Dunlop’s Air Maintenance Technology, or AMT. The public first caught a glimpse of AMT at March’s Geneva motor show, where it was displayed in its passenger car tyre guise. Now, at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show, the tyre maker has presented AMT for commercial tyres. The technology is still under development and therefore full technical details aren’t being shared at present, yet Rietbergen stated his belief that AMT will be a “game changer.”
Following its US launch earlier this year, Continental will soon roll out its ContiPressureCheck commercial vehicle TPMS in Europe. The early warning system was debuted locally at the IAA Commercial Vehicles show earlier today.
A South African court ruled yesterday that any tyre maker who didn’t adopt the country’s REDISA waste tyre management plant would “not be entitled to manufacture [or] import new, part worn or retreaded tyres” and would also be subject to sanctions outlined in the waste tyre regulations and other legislative provisions. This decision, given by Judge Piet van der Byl at the Gauteng North High Court, put an end to efforts by the SA Tyre Recycling Process Company (SATRP) and Bridgestone South Africa to block this.
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