Tyres & Accessories January 2010
Now available to subscribers online, January 2010's magazine includes features on agricultural tyres and motorcycles tyres. For more details and to view the virtual magazine, click more.
Agricultural
Now available to subscribers online, January 2010's magazine includes features on agricultural tyres and motorcycles tyres. For more details and to view the virtual magazine, click more.
Titan Tire Corporation, a subsidiary of Titan International, has announced price increases for its Titan branded OTR, agricultural and construction tyres, and Titan manufactured Goodyear branded agricultural tyres. These price rises will take effect March 1, 2010, and will in most cases incorporate an increase of up to six per cent. Titan comments, however, that “certain tyre prices may rise in excess of six per cent due to realignment and positioning of the product.”
During last November’s Agritechnica 2009 show in Germany, off-road tyre specialist BKT displayed no less than five new product lines. These additions to an agricultural range that began with the company’s first 85 series Agrimax tractor tyre some six years ago are the result of Balkrishna Tyres’ stated strategy of continually introducing products that cover all the needs of the agricultural market. Such a strategy is hardly surprising when considering that agricultural tyres currently account for around 60 per cent of BKT’s sales.
It is now three years since Warburg Pincus and its partner, former Balkrishna Industries executive director Yogesh Mahansaria, announced an intention to acquire Alliance Tire. In the time since the Mahansaria family and their global private equity backer took possession of Alliance for approximately US$150 million, plans to develop the business have progressed steadily. Not only has the goal of taking advantage of India’s cheaper production costs been realised – the company’s $100 million cross-ply agricultural tyre factory in Tirunelveli has been readied for the start of commercial production – during 2009 acquisitions and further inroads into new markets boosted the Alliance brand’s profile considerably.
Changes are afoot within Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s European agricultural tyre business. Last September, the company signed a non-binding letter of intent with Titan International to sell its European agricultural tyre assets, including the Goodyear Dunlop Tires France Amiens North factory. In December Tyres & Accessories discussed this deal with Alessandro Coggi, managing director Farm and Industrial Tires, Goodyear Dunlop Europe.
Michelin made a worthy contribution to agricultural vehicle safety during the summer through a group of experts in the field. The Michelin Agricultural Contractor Panel, made up of five agricultural contractors – all of whom are past winners of the Farmer’s Weekly Contactor of the Year Competition and benchmark industry specialists – met on a regular basis and used the Michelin brand to help communicate technical issues facing the industry. The five members, Jonathan Cole, Troy Stuart, Roger Dickinson, Mike Simpson and Daniel James, made their first panel appearance at Stoneleigh’s Agricultural Showground.
In 1997, Vredestein introduced the first four dimensions in its Traxion+ tractor radial line-up, and the company notes these tyres were an instant success. More than a decade on and Vredestein says the Traxion+ tyres are still gaining market share in almost all European countries. A new tyre based upon the Traxion+ design has now been produced. Vredestein calls it the TraxionXXL.
The president of Trelleborg’s Agricultural and Forestry Tire Business Unit, Paolo Pompei, has commented that the division will go ahead with the investments planned for the next two or so years. “In a time of uncertainty such as this, some companies choose to reduce, freeze or even dispose of their investments,” Pompei commented. “Trelleborg, however, looks to the future in a positive way and continues with all its planned investments for 2009 to 2011.” In its 2008 annual report, Trelleborg stated investments in the agricultural tyre sector would focus upon “further development of the customer offering.” The company outlined that its Wheel Systems’ development centre in Italy is in the process of working on the next generation of high-performance agricultural tyres in cooperation with leading machinery manufacturers, and is preparing to present new products that address the key requirements of high speed road capability, comfort, roadholding, low soil impact and environmental sensitivity.
Trelleborg Wheel Systems has won the prestigious Coup de Coeur exhibitor award at AGRIBEX 2009 in Brussels, Belgium, which ran from 1 to 6 December 2009. Trelleborg won the award (in the stands up to 150 square metres category) for an exhibit featuring the “Sorry, we only make tyres for agriculture” slogan. Judges praised the Trelleborg stand for being “strong and immediately reaching its target group: farmers.” The jury specifically admired the “small city car with big agricultural tyres” at the stand’s core.
CGS Tyres, the international sales company for Czech Republic based Mitas a.s., has introduced a new agricultural and industrial tyre brand into its product portfolio. Known as Cultor, the new brand was first introduced to the public at this year’s Agritechnica show in Germany and is intended to occupy the budget segment of the CGS Tyres range, replacing the licensed Semperit brand on a phased introduction with immediate effect.
Michelin’s latest agricultural tyre training course, which is run at the Company’s Training Centre in Stoke-on-Trent, has gained City & Guilds approval. The Agricultural Tyre technical course is designed for tyre trade personnel and other people involved in the sales, maintenance and specification of agricultural tyres. It is offered to new recruits to the industry as well as giving experienced personnel the opportunity to receive formal training on a wide range of agricultural tyre-related topics.
ATS Euromaster and Michelin have been jointly appointed by Redditch Borough Council as the supplier of tyres and associated services under a four year framework agreement. The contract covers the authority’s mixed fleet of 150 vehicles, which ranges from vans and agricultural equipment to refuse collection vehicles and road sweepers, as part of a pan-government tyre sourcing initiative established in 2007 via the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).
Worldwide, Pirelli anticipates its specialised tyre segment to expand a total of 7.5 per cent over the next three years, and growth in Latin America and particularly Brazil is expected to be far stronger. The Italian manufacturer estimates sales of for construction, digging and mining vehicle tyres in these two markets to increase by 25 per cent and 37 per cent respectively, and to accommodate this development the Pirelli Group has announced plans to invest US$100 million in its Latin America specialised tyre operations. Strengthened by this injection of funds, Pirelli intends to recommence the global export of these products from the region as of 2011.
In the past ten years Qingdao Qizhou Rubber Co. Ltd. has striven to expand its business in export markets and to facilitate this invested approximately US$14 million in the construction of a OTR tyre new factory in 2003. Since the completion of the facility in Qingdao (Shandong Province) in September 2004 the OTR tyre specialist Qizhou has been able to produce around 100,000 tyres per annum. Central to the company’s range is the “Marcher” brand, through which the manufacturer of the “world’s largest OTR tyres” (59/90 R63) is represented in most corners of the globe and in the original equipment market, delivering to, as an example, LeTourneau Technologies for fitment to its dump trucks. The US firm utilises crossply “Marcher” OTR tyres in size 70/70-57 84PR with a L4 tread; deliveries to Australia and North America are made and even involve the largest available LeTourneau dumpers, disclosed Qingdao Qizhou export manager Gavin Liu.
Commercial production of agricultural tyres at Alliance Tire’s factory in Tirunelveli, India is anticipated to begin before the end of 2009 following the recent commencement of start-up test production. The first products from the US$100 million plant are expected to be cross-ply off-road tyres, and the start of manufacture in India is anticipated to allow Alliance to increase radial production in Israel.
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