New summer patterns have the Mastersteel and Roadhog budget tyre ranges. These two private labels offered by Inter-Sprint Banden B.V. are amongst the more than 17,000 SKUs of passenger, light commercial, truck and two-wheeler tyres that Europe’s largest privately owned tyre importer and distributor holds within its in-house stock of around 3 million tyres. These latest Mastersteel and Roadhog products arrive from September.
Blackcircles.com is now offering the Roadstone and Dynamo brands. The online retailer describes both as budget tyre brands that “offer great value for money” by giving customers “a cheaper alternative when working within a pricing budget.
While tyre retail sales volumes in Russia reportedly declined 16% year-on-year in Q1 2023, to 3.2 million units, sales value dropped 42%. The growing popularity of lower-priced tyres partially explains this larger decrease in turnover, and imports from China and Korea rose significantly. An expert from one association nonetheless still recommends European tyres, even though they’re hard to find and expensive.
To put the weirdness of 2022 into perspective, consider that tyre wholesalers must contend with the impact of both rising costs and falling costs. And this contradictory situation is but one of a host of challenges in a year that tore up the rulebook. Antwerp-based wholesaler Deldo recently shared its experiences with us.
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.
Spring is on its way, and independent tyre distribution firm Vimexa says it has a wide range of products available to customers. Managing director Rutger Veerman confirms that a number of brands are available, and as 85 per cent of the tyres that Vimexa supplies are premium products, import uncertainties won’t be an issue. But options also exist for customers shopping for budget tyres.
All-season tyres are growing in popularity, and suppliers of budget brands from the Far East account for a good share of sales within this segment. This trend has led some to ask whether budget all-season tyres are a good choice for motoring throughout the entire year.
Larger capacity, increased comfort in the cabin and multi-terrain capabilities are just some of the reasons why motorists are continuing to choose SUVs when purchasing a new vehicle.
Indeed, SUVs and crossovers currently account for a third of the UK’s best-selling cars list of 2019 to date, with offerings from Nissan, Ford and Kia among the biggest sellers.
An analyst report published by Jefferies International Limited has stated that the closure of Michelin’s Dundee plant “supports [the company’s] intent to accelerate cost savings during 2019-20.” Presenting its nine-month 2018 results in October, Michelin warned that demand had deflated in the car and truck markets and it was revising down its guidance; subsequently Michelin shares fell to a seven-year low.
Two months after the tyre manufacturer began a restructuring programme at its factory in Dundee, Michelin is set to close the plant at the cost of about 850 jobs. Michelin, which has run the Dundee site since 1971, says it plans to leave the city by 2020.
In the last few weeks, Apollo has initiated production at its new Hungary tyre factory and launched a brand new European truck tyre range (see Company News section pages 32 – 24); Doublestar has confirmed that it is the only remaining bidder in the race for 42 per cent of Kumho Tire (see pages 36 – 37); and as we went to press, Finnish tyre maker Nokian announced that it will build its third production plant, this time in the USA. All this points to what we might call a re-globalisation trend. Rather than businesses from the large so-called developed nations expanding around the globe, this second wave of international expansion sees the roles reversing to some extent. While before the Western nations were looking to invest in fast-growing “emerging” economies, now the proverbial shoe is on the other foot and large companies in what used to be called the BRIC nations are investing in more developed tyre markets.
Our neighbours in Germany are gearing up for the seasonal changeover to summer tyres, and every year this rush to swap to the warm weather rubber is accompanied by a rash of tyre tests. ACE and GTÜ were two of the first to release their comparative summer tyre evaluations, and now high-profile German motoring organisation the ADAC has published tests of two different tyre sizes – the smaller of the two tested dimensions is size 185/65 R 15 H, a tyre suitable for small and compact cars. The ADAC tested 16 tyres in this size.
The association representing the interests of four tyre majors in South Africa would like to see anti-dumping duties imposed on cheap tyres entering the country. The South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference (SATMC), which acts as the ‘generic face’ of Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear and Sumitomo in their dealings with government, the motor industry and the public, intends to petition the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) for protection against these imports.
The motoring public, states Bridgestone, has “a low understanding of tyres and little affinity with them,” and in many cases consider a tyre to be a round and black commodity typically acquired as a distress purchase. This point of view is unlikely to change unless drivers are more regularly exposed to tyre-related information, and therefore Bridgestone is currently striving to influence the people that may possibly influence you.
Tyrereviews data suggests mid-range is perceived as outperforming premium The tyre-buying public is most likely to repeat-buy mid-range tyre brands, according to data collected and compiled by consumer tyre rating website, tyrereviews.co.uk. The data, which is based on a total of 11,429 consumer reviews even goes as far as saying that consumers believe their mid-range […]
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