Africa
Motivated by the positive response it received in 2010, on June 22 and 23 Goodyear Dunlop Tyres UK was back at Vertikal Days, the country’s only dedicated event for the lifting industry. On the company’s stand at the Merseyside-based show was the Dunlop SP ER50 crane tyre – a product Goodyear Dunlop says has taken off since last year’s show.
Founded in 1995 and based in Beijing Best Choice International Trade Co. Ltd. quickly established strategic business relationships with domestic tyre manufacturers eager to market their products internationally. Over the years, this has led to the development of a loyal customer base. Consequently, Best Choice reports that it has the developed the ability to source quality tyres at very advantageous prices. All this culminated in the launch of a new private brand at the recent Autopromotec exhibition.
Indian-based industrial tyre manufacturer Emrald Resilient Tyres has opened a European operation. Based in Kalmthout near Antwerp in Beglium the business, which was founded six months ago, is headed by V I Srinivas. According to company representatives, the operation consists of a marketing office and warehouse, which contains 4-5 container loads of stock and achieves about the same amount in throughput.
Data released during Automechanika Middle East shows that the overall volume of aftermarket trade that passes through Dubai is heading back to historically record levels following the recession. According to the Dubai Ports and Customs import, export and re-export figures, Dubai experienced its market peak and then decline a year later than in Europe.
Automechanika Middle East 2011 concluded on 9 June with confirmation that it was the largest international automotive aftermarket trade fair in the wider Middle East region. According to data provided by the exhibitions organisers, 17,421 visitors from over 120 countries attended the show, with a 52 per cent of them described as international visitors. In addition there were 1,102 exhibitors from 52 countries.
Following a successful Tyrexpo Asia earlier this year, Zafco, the Dubai based tyre distributor of tyres, batteries and lubricants, opted for a second high profile exhibition stand at Automechanika Middle East. Tyres & Accessories was on-hand in Dubai to find out more.
One collaboration Tyres & Accessories experienced the benefit of during Automechanika Middle East was that of Auto Strategies and CIP Development Services. The two companies work together to produce insights in the automotive markets of some of the lesser reported markets, including many in the Middle East. As well as annual vehicle sales, which are relatively easy to get hold of, the companies reports also look at the car parcs of the markets covered. And data that looks at what vehicles are currently on the market wearing out tyres is obviously of great interest to tyre companies too.
Al Dobowi Group chairman Surender Singh Kandhari’s spoke on “the emergence of budget tyres” at the recent Automechanika Middle East his argument that there is no such thing as a bad tyre may have raised some eyebrows, but it certainly got the audience thinking. Highlighting that the combination of ambitious manufacturers based in emerging markets and increasingly tough legislation has seen so-called budget brands rapidly increase sales volumes and standards, his most memorable comment came when he posited: "There are no bad tyres; only good ones and better ones.”
Currently Al-Saeedi runs six outlets around Dubai serving OTR, commercial vehicle, passenger car and industrial tyre consumers’ change and repair needs. However, Tyres & Accessories has learnt that the management is now considering further expansion in the capital city of Uganda, Kampala and in Kerala, India. Al Saeedi Group set up Tyrexpress (U) Ltd. in Uganda on 13 April 2010.
Shandong Deruibao Tire Co., Ltd., produces passenger car radial tyres under two Chinese brands plus the slightly more anglicized Deruibo international export moniker. Deruibao is currently looking for international distribution partners having embarked on an export programme last March. Initially things began with the export of the firm’s truck and bus radials, but moving forward, the company hopes to do the same with passenger car radials in 2012.
The company currently manufactures 3 million all-steel tyres a year across 100 stock keeping units (SKUs), but the company began building a 24 million unit a year plant a couple of years ago. The firm already produces 13 patterns and 13 sizes of truck and bus radials.
Established in November 2002, Sailun Co., Ltd. has been producing tyres for around 7 years. During this time the company has established a foundation in the market place, growing very fast in a number of areas. The company started off focusing on distribution agreements in North America, Europe and South America, but – as we saw from the establishment of a Sailun Europe subsidiary, which was announced in October last year – the firm is set on further expansion.
Currently the company is on the hunt for a tyre distributor local to the Middle East with the motivation and ability to drive the brand forward, hence the decision to exhibit in Dubai at this year’s Automechanika Middle East at the start of June. At the moment Sailun reports turnover of around US$40 million in this region, but the aim is for a new partner local to the Middle East region to work with the company to significantly increase this. Sailun representatives told Tyres & Accessories that the firm is already in talks with some interested parties, but it is far too early to share any details about this.
Under the leadership of Mian Iftikhar Ahmed, the dedicated team Mian Tyre & Rubber Company Limited (MTRCL), which sells the Panther brand of tyres, has won the Pakistan export trophy for the last eight consecutive years. Now, the flagship business of Iftikhar Group of Companies, a leading tyre and tube manufacturing group in Pakistan is aiming to increase exports still further. According to the company, the Panther trade name has developed a reputation of “excellence in domestic and export marketplace.” The firm supplies tyres and tubes for tractors, threshers, fork lifts, jeeps, motorcycles, scooters, rickshaws, cycles and trolleys.
Stamford Tyres Corporation Limited has announced that its net profits for the year ended 30 April 2011 jumped 41.4 per cent to S$13.3 million off the back of “better sales mix of high performance tyres and earthmover tyres.” According to the company, this combination of high value items “offset rising tyre costs,” while the company’s business in the South Africa, North Asia and South East Asian markets are said to have put in strong sales performances.
The longest-serving Continental AG board member, Hans-Joachim Nikolin (55), leaves the company’s Executive Board at the end of July and its youngest member, Nikolai Setzer (40), will take over a combined tyre business and thus lead the company’s most successful and currently highest turnover-generating division. The company’s business unit structure has decreased at a management level to adapt with future requirements and now benefits the previously independently-led truck tyre division, which in many past years failed to meet expectations and suffered under the griping of Nikolin’s fellow board members Wennemer and Hippe. During that time, numerous threats were allegedly made to sell off the entire commercial vehicle tyre division should it prove unable to rapidly achieve an EBIT margin of or near double figures. Such threats placed Dr. Hans-Joachim in a very helpless position as yield-hungry analysts could have all too easily interpreted them as promises.
Federal Tyres and the Consor Tyre Group report benefitting from their first joint attendance as exhibitors at a trade fair. During Autopromotec 2011 in Bologna, Italy, the two companies held their annual Italian distributors’ meeting. The meeting’s key aim was to emphasise and reinforce the common goal of improving the Federal brand’s image in the Italian market through supplying quality tyres.
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