Agricultural
Trelleborg Wheel Systems has announced a further price hike on agricultural, forestry tyres and wheels effective April 2011. The latest price increase of 9 per cent covers both the European and North American market places. “Booming raw material prices, especially for natural rubber,” were cited as the reasons for the price increase.
Goodyear has detailed a change to the product strategy of its million-selling Optitrac range of farm radial tyres, which is to become more application focused. Commenting on these new developments to the Optitrac range, Phil Stanton, Goodyear’s Farm Tyre manager, said: “Goodyear has found that the trends in the agricultural machinery market, particularly with the high end machines, means that application specific tyres will be required in the future. The differing performance requirements of tractors and harvesters can no longer be fully satisfied by the same tyre. The 2 new ranges of tyres will clearly segment our OPTITRAC product line into specific tyres for tractors and for harvester machines and will have features that will provide the performance benefits demanded by the operators of these machines.”
Emerging markets such as the BRIC countries are expected to drive growth for Trelleborg Wheel Systems over the next few years. In the Trelleborg Group’s 2010 annual report, Maurizio Vischi, president of the business area responsible for producing industrial and agricultural tyres, said “emerging markets as Brazil, China and Russia have begun to show more interest in high-tech products and products that generate value. This provides significant expansion potential through greater presence in these markets.” Vischi admitted that that Trelleborg expects only “restricted” growth in Western Europe and North America, where the business area already counts as “one of the principal players.”
Three new radial implement tyre ranges for the North American market have been introduced by Titan Goodyear Farm Tires. Known as the FS34, the Muck Master Radial and the Super Flot Radial, all three offer the usual benefits of radial construction plus a large contact area for better flotation and less soil compaction.
It’s now more than fifteen years since Balkrishna Industries Ltd., or BKT, wound up its two-wheeler, car and truck tyre business in favour of a focus on off-road tyres. This ‘place every egg in one basket’ decision was a major step for the then seven year old company, yet it is one the Indian manufacturer has never regretted. Since the changeover to off-road tyres in 1995, BKT has grown at an enviable rate and produced some 1,900 SKUs of OTR, industrial and agricultural tyres. Recently, Tyres & Accessories was given the opportunity to observe first-hand the result of a decade and a half’s specialisation within the off-road sector and gain a clearer picture of where the company aims to go.
Goodyear has announced a new farm tyre in its Optitrac range specifically developed for harvester machines: the Optitrac H+. The H+ range will include tyres designed to operate at higher deflection levels, signified by the addition of the letters IF as a prefix to the size and CFO as a suffix. Goodyear says these tyres have been designed in line with a four-year 2009 ETRTO experimental standard which allows a “load bonus of up to 55 per cent for cyclic field operations without the need to increase the inflation pressure”. This new range was shown on Goodyear’s stand at the 2011 SIMA show held in Paris with the introduction of the first two sizes: IF800/70R32 CFO and IF800/75R32 CFO. It was developed by the Goodyear Innovation Centre – Luxembourg (GIC*L) and has been tested and approved by harvester manufacturers in Europe.
Titan International’s acquisition of Goodyear’s European and Latin American agricultural tyre business has given the US tyre maker access to agricultural products designed at the Goodyear Innovation Center in Colmar Berg, Luxembourg – including the Goodyear Optitrac R+. In March 2011 Titan Goodyear Farm Tires announced its introduction of a tyre that has proven popular with European farmers during the past five years.
Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations has promoted Tom Rodgers to the role of director of Sales and Marketing, Agricultural Tire, US & Canada Commercial Tire Sales Division (BAAG). In his expanded role, Rodgers’ primary objective will be to manage the channel supply strategy between the company’s original equipment and replacement markets. In addition, he will work with sales personnel to continue providing technology and service to and through the company’s original equipment customers and Certified Dealer network to meet the needs of production agriculture. The former director Marketing, Sales Support and Strategic Management at BAAG will also continue with his existing marketing duties, including responsibility for Marketing and Promotions, Sales Support, Budgeting and Forecasting, Pricing, Product Development, and Field Engineering.
After the recent announcement relating to the acquisition of Watts Industrial Tyres and of new production capacity in Hebei, China, Trelleborg Wheel Systems launched a new agricultural tyre concept centring on sustainability, productivity and lower fuel consumption. The TM Blue concept reportedly results from “advanced tyre engineering and enhanced production processes to decrease the use of natural resources and environmental impact while boosting the farm productivity.” But for purposes of the press conference at the SIMA agricultural equipment show in Paris on 22 February, Trelleborg presented a tyre that was literally blue to emphasise its point.
But the concept is nothing to do with the colour of the rubber (which may have been green if the company wanted to convey the same message to UK public). Instead it is all about improving the efficiency of land machinery, which reduces emissions and has the dual effect of cutting fuel costs, and protecting soil from unnecessary compaction, which increases crop yields and in turn helps farmers’ bottom lines.
Serge Lafon, Michelin’s executive director of Agricultural Tyres World says that the company’s SIMA 2011 line-up provides “tangible proof of Michelin’s strategic commitment to enhancing the productivity of farmers and farming companies and boosting their bottom line.” The stand is presenting the CerexBib for harvesters, the SprayBib for row-crop sprayers and the AxioBib in a new size – IF900/60R42 – the market’s only 2.15-metre flotation tyre with “Improved Flexion”. Michelin says its tyres deliver “enhanced soil protection, considerably lower fuel consumption and greater longevity”, helping farms to be more profitable.
During the course of 2011 the CGS Group will introduce a new Mitas branded range of tyres for use in row-crop agriculture into its global markets. This Mitas range will replace the existing Continental brand row crop tyres that Mitas has been producing under licence since 2004.
Trelleborg has acquired an operation in Xingtai, Hebei Province, eastern China, in a move designed to facilitate the group’s expansion in the Chinese market for specialty, primarily agricultural tyres.
Trelleborg has acquired an existing facility from a Chinese company, part of the US Group Maine Industrial Tire LLC, and will also transfer approximately 180 employees. The acquisition and investments total approximately 100 million Swedish krona (£9.641 million; 11.45 million euros; US$15.54 million) over a three-year period. Production under the Trelleborg name is expected to commence during the second quarter of 2011.
Titan Tire, the US subsidiary of Titan International, has announced that it will increase its aftermarket prices for its Titan and Goodyear branded farm and construction tyres from 1 April. On the back of raw materials, energy and transportation costs tyre prices will increase by up to 8 per cent, though Titan also stated that “certain tyres’ prices may rise in excess of 8 per cent due to realignment and positioning of the product.” The rise will affect tyres shipped on or after the date of the increase.
Denmark’s Starco has announced the formation of a joint venture with Buco S.A., a family-owned company located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buco specialises in the development of rubber parts for agricultural machinery, and under the joint venture’s terms the Starco Group receives exclusive European distribution rights for the entire Buco product range – including a comprehensive range of semi-pneumatic tyres and wheels, corrugated hoses and telescopic tubes for seed drills. Starco Europe group marketing manager Brian Lorentzen states that with the joint venture both companies will “benefit from their combined product expertise and market knowledge, all of which supports a strategy of expanding further into the agricultural segment in Europe.”
Michelin has announced fresh price rises for European markets – part of its “firm pricing policy” in the face of rising raw material costs. As of March 1, motorcycle and scooter tyres will increase by up to 7.5 per cent, while prices for earthmover tyres will go up by up to 7.5 per cent on this date in most European markets. Between March 1 and April 1 price rises for new and retreaded truck tyres averaging seven per cent will be “gradually implemented” in European markets (excluding Russia), while agricultural tyres will receive the same gradual approach to price increases in many European markets between April 1 and May 1; this time prices will go up by an average of four per cent. Last but not least, the passenger car and small truck tyre segment will see increases averaging five per cent for summer and winter products gradually implemented between April 1 and June 1, 2011.
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