Asia
UK based manufacturer and retreader Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has appointed a new finance director and company secretary to assist with the company’s expansion plans. The former finance director at Honeywell subsidiary First Technology, Oliver Burns, will head a team of eight finance and information technology staff at the tyremaker’s Birmingham headquarters.
Comments made by Apollo Tyres joint managing director and COO during his attendance at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit on December 3 reiterate the tyremaker’s goals for the coming years. “As stated, we are looking to touch the two billion dollar sales by 2010 and we are looking to enter strategic markets in Asia Pacific and Europe in the passengers tyre segment,” commented Kanwar to media covering the New Delhi summit. When asked whether the company, who in 2006 paid £35.4 million in cash for South Africa’s Dunlop International, intended to support its expansion through further acquisitions, Kanwar replied that “both organic and inorganic growth will play important part as we aim to achieve our 2010 target.”
Pirelli Tyre reports that price increases of up to 10 per cent are planned for all passenger car, SUV and truck tyre lines sold in Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific markets, effective as of January 1, 2008. The manufacturer states that the increases have been necessitated by continued increases in the cost of raw materials and energy.
In its 15 years of existence, TGI has developed into a fast-growing company in the worldwide distribution of tyres and tubes. At Tyrexpo Asia, James Eiriz, Vice President of International Sales, told T&A that last year the company experienced a 15 per cent growth in sales.
This was mainly in the Caribbean and Latin America; areas where TGI is particularly strong. Indeed, some 65 per cent of the company’s turnover is achieved in Hispanic countries and now TGI is setting its sights further afield, with plans to expand into the USA (majoring on high performance and truck tyres) as well as targeting Western Europe and Asia, hence the presence at Tyrexpo Asia. Freight costs – especially from China – are increasing, says Eiriz, but he nevertheless expects business volumes to increase this year.
At the start of the New Year Allen Tsaur will take over as vice president and general manager of its Asian Operations, replacing Ron Shield, who took on the role in an interim capacity and is retiring at the end of 2007. Tsaur, who joined Cooper Tire in January 2007, is currently general manager of Cooper’s operations in China. The role of deputy general manager for the Asian Operations, a new position, will be filled by Michael Cati. The former director of Asian Operations sales and marketing will report directly to Tsaur.
JK Tyres has become the latest Indian manufacturer to talk of boosting its outsourcing of production to Chinese manufacturers. An article printed in the Hindu Business Line reports that the company, who already has five or six Chinese partners producing tyres under the JK brand name, intends to increase its outsourcing activity there by around 10 per cent.
This measure is being taken in order to increase JK Tyre’s sales in Chinese and other overseas markets. “We are looking at strategic partners in South East Asia or China to serve the local market in those countries as well as overseas markets. Though the China business is miniscule currently, we are looking to expand it,” quoted the Hindu Business Line of JK Tyre vice chairman and managing director Raghupati Singhania.
The thirty-fifth edition of the now iconic Pirelli Calendar – the first ever to be photographed in Asia – has been unveiled in Shanghai. Set entirely in China’s largest city, the calendar uses as a backdrop the picturesque streets of the old French Concession, the splendid gardens of the former British Legation, the mysterious and sensual atmosphere of forbidden China, the convulsive Nanjing Road and the characteristic tea houses.
In each of the twenty-three portraits in this latest calendar (two for each month, except August) Pirelli aims to recount “the pomp of ancient China, with its splendour and the colours in which the Oriental myth of female beauty – perfection, purity, grace – is searched out.” Popular Chinese actress Maggie Cheung, featured in the 2008 calendar, explains this beauty: “Very often I find Western people seem to go for the more cliché Chinese faces: long hair, slanted eyes. All that has changed I think. Many Chinese women are graceful; I think we have an inner grace that’s more rare than you find in the West.”
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The new Pirelli calender 2008 will show “The Pearls of the Orient“ at its official presentation at the Shangri-La hotel in Shanghai tomorrow. It will be the first calender presentation ever to take place in Asia. In doing so Pirelli not only highlights the fact that Asia is becoming increasingly important to the Italian corporation, but also points out Pirelli’s ambitious goals with regard to the Asian markets.
Under the leadership of Dr Francesco Gori, Pirelli’s tyre division is accelerating the pursuit of its forward looking strategy. On November 27, 2007, Pirelli officially opened its new passenger car tyre factory in Yanzhou, Shandong province and presented the facility to the Chinese media. Tyres & Accessories and its German sister publication Neue Reifenzeitung were the only international tyre publications in attendance. In the first phase Pirelli will produce about 3 million passenger car tyres per year, ranging between 14 and 18 inches in diameter. In a fast second step, this capacity will be expanded up to 5 million units. The premises even allow for a future expansion of the production site up to a capacity of 10 million passenger car tyres. German manager, Michael Beck (44), has taken over the responsibility of the Pirelli factory. For him it is a pleasure to have had the chance to build a factory on a greenfield site with the benefit of an ideal flow of goods and materials.
With regards to equipment Pirelli’s new PC tyre factory is one of the most modern facilities the tyre manufacturer runs, MIRS factories aside. The output is intended for the Chinese tyre market, but also for South East Asia and Australia as well as Northern America where Pirelli urgently needs additional tyres. Three years ago Pirelli installed a truck tyre factory on the same site as the new PC tyre facility. This factory will soon reach its maximum capacity on schedule and then will add an annual output of 1 million large truck tyres, of which the majority will be tube type tyres. However, over the past months, Pirelli has produced more and more tube-less truck tyres in Yanzhou. Initially, Pirelli had planned to sell a major part of its truck tyre output in the whole of the South East Asian region. This plan was soon put aside in light of dramatically growing demand on the domestic Chinese truck tyre market. China already is the largest single truck tyre market in the world and is consuming Pirelli’s truck tyres fresh from the vulcanising presses.
The new passenger car tyre factory was built together with Pirelli’s truck tyre joint venture partner. Since the two partners started producing truck tyres in China three years ago, Pirelli has gained a majority share of 75 per cent of the joint venture holding company and it can be expected that with every single increase of capital Pirelli’s share in the company further grow.
On the occasion of the official opening of the new PC tyre factory, Pirelli’s chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera as well as Dr Francesco Gori, the CEO of Pirelli Tyre, representatives from the Chinese jointventure partner, delegates of the Shandong province as well as the Italian ambassador for China were present in Yanzhou. During the past three years Pirelli has invested more than $200 million into the site. It is very likely that this sum will be doubled within the next three years. The truck tyre factory currently employs about 1,000 people. The passenger car tyre factory will hire another 1,000 employees. Pirelli already has a well-established distribution network available in China which is expected to grow up to 1,000 point of sale by early next year. Two thirds of these dealers will be so-called mono-brand dealers.
Talking to Tyres & Accessories, Francesco Gori points out that tyres produced in the new PC tyre factory in China are not designated for sale on the European tyre markets. This comes as no surprise because just a few months ago Pirelli opened a passenger car tyre factory in Slatina, Romania. This facility has a similar size and is equally modern as the new tyre factory in China.
On 7th August 2007, UK based Klarius Group Ltd, acquired of the Emissions Control activities of ArvinMeritor Light Vehicle Aftermarket Europe (LVA Europe). With the purchase, Klarius Group acquired the entire shareholdings of LVA Europe’s Emissions Control businesses in the UK, France and Italy; Arvin Replacement Products Ltd, Arvin Replacement Products SAS and Ansa Marmitte s.r.l. Chairman, Tony Wilson commented, “We are very enthusiastic about the growth opportunities for the new company. Growth will come from the development of our products and services to provide innovative environmental solutions for our customers”.
Klarius Group’s market leading product portfolio includes exhaust brands Timax (UK), Rosi (France), Ansa (Italy), Tesh (Europe) and pan-european catalyst brands Metal’Cat and EuroCat. The new group holds a 21% share of the European Emissions Control aftermarket. In addition, Klarius will continue to market and distribute the Purolator filter brand across Europe.
Chadha Rubber is a member of the Chadha group; a vast organisation with interests in foodstuffs, metals, paper, rubber, handicrafts distilling and wine and real estate. In all, the group employs some 10,000 people. Products of Chadha Rubber include butyl rubber tubes, flaps and curing bags and envelopes for retreading. The tube plant began manufacturing in 1989 and covers a wide range of tubes for vehicles from two wheelers to OTR machinery. Domestically, the company enjoys regular business with the Special Defence Aircraft tubes and is actively associated with the various State Transport Fleet owners and Indian tyre manufacturers. Exports form a healthy part of Chadha Rubber’s business, with sales made in over 40 different countries, said Mr Ajay Bhardwaj, General Manager, International Business.
Apollo Tyres’ plans to double its turnover to US$2 billion by 2010 involve expansion in Europe, and Neeraj Kanwar, the company’s joint managing director and COO, has revealed further details of Apollo’s intentions to this end. Comments made by the senior Apollo executive have been printed in the Indian business newspaper, Mint.
The tyremaker is aware of Europe’s value as a market, and is planning its entry into the market carefully. Neeraj Kanwar said that Apollo views Europe “eventually as a domestic market.” Therefore, the company’s involvement in the region is “taking time because we want to get the service infrastructure and the back-end (operations) ready.” A previous attempt at European distribution, in cooperation with Netherlands based wholesaler Euro-Tyre BV, saw only a limited quantity of Apollo Tyres products sold in Europe, and this working relationship has now ended.
Yokohama Rubber marks a milestone in its supply of the official tyres for the 54th Macau Grand Prix, held between Thursday November 15 and Sunday November 18. The company has now supplied official tyres to the race for 25 consecutive years since 1983.
First held in 1954, the Macau Grand Prix is the oldest motor race in Asia. Running through the streets of Macau, the overall event comprises the F3 Grand Prix, the final WTCC race (held concurrently with the Grand Prix since the 2005 season), the Motorcycle Grand Prix and others. The F3 Grand Prix is particularly important to Yokohama as it became an international F3 race in 1983, the year Yokohama Rubber started supplying official tyres. That year Aryton Senna was crowned champion. Since then, it has been known as the F3 race that decides the world’s No. 1 – a gathering of the top F3 racers in the world. Many F1 drivers, including Michael Schumacher, David Coulthart and Takuma Sato, have won at Macau. This year, 31 cars will compete in the F3 Grand Prix.
“The rising price of natural rubber will present one of the major challenges that all industrial tyre manufacturers face in 2008” stated Jean-Paul Mindermann, Chief Executive Officer of Watts Tyre Group, at his Q3 Business Review Conference. The facts are startling; after 2006’s wild fluctuations the price of RSS3 has risen sharply and steadily in 2007. In January this year the price per kilo was 197 US cents, ten months later it sits at 255, with market analysts predicting that the price will soon hit 300 cents per kg. Over the last 12 months the price has risen by more than 60 per cent.
Kumho Petrochemical has made a total investment of 285.3 billion Korean won (£150.6 million) in extensions to its facilities as part of its goal of acquiring the largest share of the global synthetic rubber and specialty chemical market. A total of 164 billion Korean won (£86.6 million) has been invested in the company’s BR (butadiene rubber) factory and 97 billion Korean won (£51.2 million) in its SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) plant. A further 24.3 billion Korean won (£12.8 million) has been invested in the company’s specialty chemical plant, where the substance 6-PPD is produced.
When the extensions are completed, Kumho Petrochemical’s annual BR production capacity will increase from 222,000 tons to 342,000 tons, while its annual SBR production capacity will rise from 421,000 tons to 531,000 tons. The company will also produce more than twice its current volume of 6-PPD a year, increasing its capacity from 31,000 tons to 70,000 tons. Extensions to the BR plant are expected to be completed in October 2009. When this goal is achieved, Kumho Petrochemical’s annual production of BR and SBR combined will reach 763,000 tons – meaning that output will surpass that of Goodyear, who currently produce 714,000 tons per annum, placing Kumho Petrochemical at the head of the world list in terms of synthetic rubber production.
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