Asia
In 2024, Sentury’s revenue reached 8.51 billion yuan (about £880 million; €1.05 billion), an increase of about 670 million yuan compared with the previous year. Compared with revenue, the tyre manufacturer’s net profit increased by about 820 million yuan to 2.19 billion yuan (about £230 million; €270 million). In other words, the absolute value of Sentury’s net profitability is growing faster its revenues.
Translogik, a division of Transense Technologies plc, has formed a strategic distribution partnership with AssetFindr, headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia with a customer base across Southeast Asia.
The collaboration opens a new sales region for Translogik, bringing its tyre inspection and data capture tools to market in Southeast Asia for the first time along with AssetFindr’s TyreOptimaX module.
The organisers of TyreXpo Asia are warning that exhibitor space is getting limited for the 12-14 March 2025 event in Singapore (Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre). Informa Markets will follow up its 2024 Show in Bangkok and last year’s international tyre market exhibition in Singapore in Halls D-F, rather than A-C, creating an additional 3,000 sqm of exhibition space, a move it says it made “due to high demand.”
Yokohama will supply its Geolandar M/T G003 mud-terrain tyres for SUVs and pickup trucks to Team Mitsubishi Ralliart in the 2024 Asia Cross Country Rally (AXCR). Asia’s largest cross-country rally is scheduled for 11-17 August 11–17. The team previously won the overall championship on the Geolandar M/T G003 in 2022 and aims to reclaim the championship this year.
Tyrexpo Asia 2024 in Bangkok attracted more than 4,000 attendees, with 92 exhibitors and over 150 tyre and accessory product buyers hailing from 72 countries. The attendees encompass a mixture of distributors, retailers, importers, logistic distribution, transportation and supply chain companies. It was the first dedicated Tyre & Accessories Equipment show staged in Thailand, by the event organisers, Informa Markets. The event was jointly opened by guest of honour, Captain Thammannt Prompau – minister of agriculture & cooperatives Thailand, Nakorn Tangavirapal – governor of the Rubber Authority of Thailand and Patrapee Chinachoti – co-chairman of Informa Markets Thailand.
Prior to 2022, a factory in Vsevolozhsk, Russia produced around 80 per cent of Nokian Tyres’ passenger vehicle tyres, and many of these were sold throughout Europe. Times have changed and so has ownership of the Vsevolozhsk plant. New parent company Tatneft operates the business as Ikon Tyres and is seeking new markets to replace the sanctions-barred EU. According to automotive website Kolesa.ru, Ikon Tyres may have its sights on customers further afield.
At the end of September, the list of Asia’s most influential brands of 2023 was published at the “Asia Brand Summit” in Hong Kong. A total of 500 brands from 20 countries and regions, were honoured at the 18th World Brand Lab summit themed “The Impact of New Technologies on Brand Transformation and Consumer Behavior.” Seven of them were tyre brands and all seven were ranked amongst the top 350 of the 500 honoured brands.
Yokohama has continued its support for entrants in the 2023 Asia Cross Country Rally (AXCR), Asia’s largest cross-country rally. In addition to renewing its successful supply deal with Team Mitsubishi Ralliart, Yokohama will supply the tyre to Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia on the 13-19 August rally.
Pirelli tyres will be fitted on a record 40 cars at the next round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS at Fuji in Japan this weekend. The event also represents the opening round of the Fanatec Japan Cup event. Pirelli is sole supplier to all the GT3-based championships organised by the SRO Group around the world. These events showcase racing equivalents of roadgoing supercars, making them particularly suited to Pirelli’s core business of supplying OE and replacement market tyres to performance vehicles for the road and track. The tyre manufacturer says it uses motorsport for the development of road tyre products in its P Zero and Cinturato ranges.
The United Kingdom and European Union is importing an increasing tonnage of Off-The-Road (OTR) tyres, as the sector responds to internal and external trends. Externally, sinking shipping costs and relatively controlled production costs are particularly favouring Asian manufacturers. And with Russia’s war on Ukraine making the country a pariah in European trading terms, there are additional reasons to source increasing numbers of OTR tyres from South Asia. Trading relations with Russia’s closest supporter Belarus are also frosting, which could see further gains for Asian factories, while emerging tyre producing nations like Serbia could also reap the benefits. While the size, weight and per unit cost of the largest tyres could present arguments in favour of more localised production, lower manufacturing and materials costs weigh even more heavily in this balance of factors.
The chief executive officer of Michelin’s Europe North Region has spoken out against “cheap products from Asia and their dumping prices.” In an interview with German newspaper Bild, Anish K. Taneja, who also serves as the president of the German Rubber Manufacturers Association (wdk), emphasised that tyres such as these are not environmentally sustainable, nor are they sustainable for consumers or for local jobs.
GlobalData says that the combined sales of new vehicles in Southeast Asia’s six largest markets (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore) are estimated to have declined by 28.5 per cent to 2,468,613 units in 2020.
Goodyear will be the official tyre supplier to two top teams in the upcoming Dakar Rally. The rally returns to its roots in the desert on 5 January in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the shift to a new continent presents new challenges to tyre suppliers, drivers and vehicles. The 2020 rally will run over sand dunes, rocky canyons and wadis or dry riverbeds, all on standard truck tyres. Goodyear has a strong record on the rally in recent years, with Petronas De Rooy Iveco occupying podium places, including two first places, with Goodyear as their tyre and development partner.
With a global market share of over 34 per cent in 2018, Europe is expected to become the leading region in the automotive diagnostic scan tools market in the next few years. At the same time, the automotive diagnostic scan tools market and is estimated grow to a US$15 billion market size by 2025 – all of which adds up to a very positive diagnosis for those wishing to offer diagnostic servicing to consumers. With this in mind, Tyres Accessories analysed the latest market data in order to find the consensus of opinions relating to the future of the diagnostic tools market.
Continental reports that it is “further enhancing its support services to strengthen its partnership with ContiTread cold retread shops”. This development is being led by John Cox, Global Head of Technical Services Retread and will centre on the enhancement of support services.
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