Asia
Continental has named the new executive vice-president for its replacement passenger and light truck tyres Asia Pacific business unit. Antonio Lopes de Seabra, formerly in charge of Continental Mabor in Portugal, takes over from Andreas Esser in the role and reports directly to Nikolai Setzer. Esser has taken over responsibility for Conti’s commercial vehicle tyres business unit, effective 1 January.
Hankook Tire has appointed a new vice-president of public relations. Kim Hyun-kyung, who is the company’s first vice-president, joins the Korean tyre maker after spending 18 years at the Samsung Group, where she was responsible for international public relations and sports marketing. “Kim is the first female to hold the title since the company was founded in 1941,” commented a Hankook official. “We will strengthen promotional work abroad to boost global sales.”
Pascal Couasnon is to take over as director of the Michelin Group’s Competitions Department upon Nick Shorrock’s retirement on 2 April, 2012, the tyre maker has announced. The 50-year old, who joined the Michelin Group in 1987, currently holds the position of director of technical and scientific communication in the company’s Communications and Brands Department, a role he commenced in 2010.
A month after announcing plans to build a passenger car tyre factory in Vietnam, Bridgestone has stated it will establish a passenger car radial manufacturing and export company there in February 2012 for this purpose. This new operation will be named Bridgestone Tire Manufacturing Vietnam Limited Liability Company and be 100 per cent Bridgestone-owned. Company capital will be US$307.8 million.
Earlier in the week Goodyear warned of potential aviation tyre shortages due to flooding in Thailand knocking its plant there out of action; it appears Goodyear is not the only tyre maker suffering as a result of the flooding. The Bangkok Post reports that Michelin dealers in flood-affected areas – 12 per cent of the more than 400 dealers nationwide – have ceased operating, and this is expected to be seen in the tyre maker’s Thailand sales figures this year.
The passenger car tyre plant inaugurated in May is not Continental’s only tyre factory planned for the Chinese city of Hefei; on 9 December the company broke ground on a two-wheel tyre facility there. The factory, which will mainly manufacture mountain and racing bicycle tyres for China and Asia, is expected to enter service in December 2012. According to Constantin Batsch, head of Continental's Two Wheel Tyre business group, initial production capacity should be 1.7 million units per annum.
Nankang Rubber Tire shares that it has donated NTD 2 million (approximately £41,000) to those affected by the recent flooding in Thailand. The donation was made through the Tzu Chi (Compassionate Relief) Foundation, a Buddhist non-governmental organisation, and the funds will be used to provide emergency relief and post-flood assistance to affected families in the areas of health, water supply and sanitation, hygiene and education.
The Korea Times reported on 6 December that Kumho Asiana chairman Park Sam-koo is planning to relieve a number of company executives from the burden of going to work. The Seoul-based publication quoted an unnamed Kumho source as saying the company is undertaking executive job cuts as part of a restructuring drive that will primarily focus on Kumho Tire and Kumho Industrial.
In connection with its Rubber Day China, which takes place in Beijing on December 2, specialty chemicals company Lanxess has reported on a study it commissioned the Technical University of Munich to undertake. This study indicates that the proportion of ‘green tyres’ in China is likely to increase to up to 50 per cent of the entire tyre market by 2020. China, Lanxess notes, already accounts for a third of global tyre production; around 400 million passenger car tyres are produced there each year.
PT Michelindo Mitra Abadi, distributor of Michelin tyres in Indonesia, has begun selling motorcycle tyres and aims to sell 400,000 units there next year. The Jakarta Globe quotes Michelindo director Jemmy Tantoro as saying “as the third-largest motorcycle market in the world, Indonesia promises a huge market for motorcycle tyres and motorcycle-related products.” This optimistic outlook is supported by the Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI), which on 29 November reported motorcycle sales in Indonesia could reach 8.4 million units in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 13.5 per cent; on average, sales rose 20 per cent per annum between 2007 and 2010.
Vietnam’s Southern Rubber Industry Joint Stock Company, or Casumina, has reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a US partner and will erect a new passenger car tyre factory. Work on the new plant should begin before the end of the year and the project’s stated total cost is VND3.7 trillion (around £112 million), including an investment of some £19 million from the US partner. The factory is expected to enter operation late in 2012 and have an annual output of 1.5 million tyres per annum. Two thirds of the new factory’s output is said to be earmarked for the US market; other named export markets are Canada and Australia.
Lanxess-owned company Rhein Chemie reports that Norman Cameron of Rhein Chemie Argentina will transfer to Hong Kong to head up the company’s newly set up APAC Tire Task Force from January 2012. The purpose of this Asia Pacific Tire Task Force is, says Rhein Chemie, to “actively survey the requirements of all tyre plants, developing tailor-made products for all customers.” The chemical company says Cameron brings particular experience in release agents and bladders to his new position.
Schaeffler AG, major shareholder in tyre maker Continental, reports it has “remained on its course of success” during the third quarter of 2011. Based on business development during the first nine months of the year, the company says it is confident of meeting its full-year targets – Schaeffler expects to increase sales by more than ten per cent and its EBIT margin by more than 13 per cent in 2011.
Hong Kong-based, Bermuda-registered company Pearl River Tyre (Holdings) Limited, who is 70 per cent shareholder in the joint venture company Guangzhou Pearl River Rubber Tyre Ltd, has been told by its controlling shareholders that negotiations with a potential buyer have been terminated.
Malaysian news agency Bernama reports that Silverstone Bhd intends to begin exporting tyres to Brazil and Argentina early in 2012. Speaking with the agency at the launch of the company’s Atlantis V7 passenger car tyre, Silverstone CEO Paul Chan said the tyre maker, who was acquired by Toyo Tire & Rubber last year, expects to export more than 10,000 tyres per month to Brazil and Argentina.
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