Asia
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. has agreed to establish a China-based joint venture company to manufacture and distribute urethane seat cushions for transportation machinery. The agreement was signed with Guangdong TGPM Automotive Industry Group Co., Ltd., headquartered in Foshan City, Guangdong Province.
In his 24 January State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama claimed the country’s trade cases against China have made a difference. Singling out a particular sector, Obama said “over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tyres.” Words that should, on the face of it, bring cheer to the US tyre industry.
Toyo Tire & Rubber has established a new company in Thailand to manufacture and distribute a distinctly non-tyre product. The new business, Toyo Rubber Chemical Products (Thailand) Limited, has been established in order to manufacture and distribute cleaning blades, which are components used in office equipment such as photocopiers, printers and fax machines. The new company is to be part of Toyo’s Urethane Business Unit.
Bosch’s Automotive Aftermarket division has agreed to buy the Service Solutions business of SPX Corporation, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The deal, valued by the company at 1.15 billion dollars (roughly 883 million euros), was signed in New York City on 23 January 2012. SPX Service Solutions develops, manufactures and sells diagnostic and service tools, workshop equipment, and software for the global automotive aftermarket. The deal follows Bosch's earlier takeover of Taiwan-based Unipoint, which supplies starters and alternators, and a series of management personnel appointments in the UK.
A fifth production unit for producing tyre tread blacks is to be added Orion Engineered Carbons’ facility in Yeosu, South Korea. The new unit will increase the plant’s annual output by 36 tonnes to a total of 188 tonnes. The project is expected to be complete in May 2013. According to Dietmar Balschukat, Orion's Asia-Pacific region general manager, the fifth unit will also produce carbon blacks for export, particularly to Japan and China.
Boasting a stronger presence at 2012’s Autosport show than on its debut the previous year, Maxxis International UK took the opportunity of the motorsport calendar opener to showcase the breadth of its product range. Managing director Derek McMartin said: “During our first visit to Autosport International last year our aim was to generate greater awareness by telling people all about the Maxxis brand.
Tire Review reports that Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. has begun moving tyre production equipment out of its Findlay, Ohio, tyre plant. The US magazine reports that late last week the tyre maker was moving the equipment, even as the 1,050 union workers there continued picketing outside of the plant, where they have been locked out since 28 November.
Tyre changer, wheel balancer and lift manufacturer, Hennessy Industries has formed a partnership with Hockman-Lewis Ltd., an international export management company, to handle sales and marketing of its Coats, Ammco and Bada branded products throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim, Tire Review reports.The new partnership represents a commitment to capitalising on the increasing demand for automotive service equipment in those markets, said Hennessy.
The Japanese are changing the way they change their tyres, reports J.D. Power Asia Pacific. The results of the company’s 2011 Japan Replacement Tire Customer Satisfaction Index Study were released on 18 January, and J.D. Power believes they show “replacement tyre shopping behaviour among vehicle owners in Japan is undergoing considerable change.” This change is said to be particularly occurring due to steadily increasing usage of the internet during the shopping process.
Hankook Tire says its global sales last year reached record levels. The Korean company’s tyre sales in 2011 amounted to KRW 6.484 trillion (£3.7 billion), a 20.9 per cent year-on-year increase. Yet thanks to steep rises in raw material prices this bumper sales year was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in operating profit – in 2011 this reached KRW 566.3 billion (£325.1 million), a decline of 8.8 per cent on the previous year.
Following approval from antitrust authorities, the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division has completed its takeover of Taiwan’s Unipoint Group. The parties involved in the transaction have agreed not to disclose the purchase price and report that both existing Unipoint brands – Unipoint and NSA – will be retained by Bosch.
Brand representatives report that since its launch in 2005, Zeetex has developed a strong reputation for quality assurance, safety and compliance with environmental requirements, and holds an impressive range of certifications. However, manufacturing body ETRMA found at least one Zeetex branded tyre that was non-REACH compliant was found on the European market in March this year. However, speaking in a recent interview with Tyres & Accessories, the global product manager of Zeetex at Zafco, Zafar Jafri, explained explained the company’s perspective on this issue: “ETRMA found a so-called ‘dirty’ tyre. At that time we were running two production lines (one for international sales and one for Europe).” Explaining that the tyre question was certainly not intended for the European market, Jafri continued by pointing out that the mishandling that led to the aforementioned tyre’s arrival in the European Union could only have come as a result of the mishandling at the factory’s warehouse, similarly unintentional mishandling at Zafco’s distribution centre or via grey-imports.
One particular newcomer at last year’s Reifen China, was Anhui Daree Rubber Corporation Ltd. Eager to find out more about the largest of this year’s show debutants, Tyres & Accessories spoke to JoJo Zhao and Vicky Shaw of the company’s global trade department and Lydia Cheung from the Daree’s sales department.
Formed in June 2010, Daree Rubber is a subsidiary operation of the Daree petrochemical group Daree Enterprise Group owned by Bajie Hua and is located in SanShan District, Wuhu City, Anhui Province. Like many newcomers before it, the business has ambitious plans to produce millions of truck and bus radial tyres within two years of formation, followed by the addition of passenger car radials to the range later in 2012 – all under the snappy motto of “pursuit to be perfect.”
We are told that we are living in an age of austerity and belt-tightening, but this has not stopped Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announcing that 2011 was a record year for sales of the luxury marque. 3,538 cars were sold globally during the year, a 31per cent increase on the 2010 total of 2,711 cars. The figure represents the best sales result in the company's 107-year history; the previous record of 3,347 cars having been set in 1978 during the Silver Shadow II era.
Described by its organizers – IGVision International Corporation of Shanghai – as "China's premier tyre industry conference", Tirecon Asia 2012 will take place in Shanghai on April 18-19.
Over 30 distinguished speakers from leading tyre industry companies across the globe will make presentations on a number of subjects, including prospects for the global tyre markets, forthcoming regulations and the latest advances in tyre technology.
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