Indonesian news sources are reporting that Indonesia's largest tyre manufacturer, PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk, is planning to set up a new tyre plant lift production capacity from 30,000 tyres per day to 45,000. According to one blogger, the company also is preparing to build a new motorcycle tyre plant in a bid to almost triple its production capacity in this sector from 37,000 to 105,000 tyres per day.
Tyremen Hull Ltd is expanding into new 26,000 square foot (2500 square metre) premises, reportedly creating “a new one stop shop for tyre services.” The new site in Witty Street, west Hull, just a few yards from one of the firm’s current sites, means the well established family tyre business in Hull is bringing all its services together under one roof. Currently, the company is split between three units in Witty Street, Anlaby Road and Argyle Street, however after the move is completed the three sites will be consolidated into one “huge” facility offering services such as tyres, alloy wheels, batteries, exhausts and wheel alignment.
By centralising all its work at the former Swedecor premises, Tyremen representatives say the company hopes to improve efficiency and increase work capacity. Tyremen was set up more than 40 years ago and is run by co-directors Lindsay Carlin and his son Phil.
Just a few short weeks after reporting on the significant ongoing price rises in the cost of international container shipping and predicting that there was yet more to come, industry sources are now saying that the situation has been turned upside down, with many companies now cutting prices in competition with each other.
“Things have been turned on their heads in recent days and this is having a significant knock on effect on rates. Some of the shipping lines didn’t raise rates recently when many of the others did and now many carriers are price cutting to remain competitive and are aggressively targeting new customers,” Rob Shelley of Suffolk-based freight forwarder Maritime Cargo Services told Tyres & Accessories.
Techking Tires says it intends to place a focus on tyre management systems in 2010. During an interview, company president Sheng Rongsheng said “this year, Techking is going to invest on the research of the total tyre management system. We hope the system would help our customers to manage and use their tyres more efficiently.” To help deliver tyre management solutions, during 2010 Techking is establishing six new Techking Service Centers within China and more than 20 will be built up in overseas markets.
The BBC reports that another contender for next year’s Formula One tyre supply has emerged. Cooper Avon has apparently joined Michelin as a possible replacement for Bridgestone, who ends its tyre supply arrangement at the end of the current race season – and Bernie Ecclestone has told BBC Sport he doesn’t mind which company ends up taking over tyre supply “as long as the teams are happy.”
According to the BBC, race teams appear to have a preference for Michelin, as concerns exist over the much smaller Avon's capacity to do the job, even though it is believed the plan is for it to use tyres supplied by Bridgestone.
Should Michelin be selected, the 13-inch wheel rims currently used on F1 vehicles will be replaced by 18-inch wheel rims. This will change the cars’ suspension set-up – at the moment, the taller tyre sidewalls are effectively used as part of the suspension to absorb bumps, but the smaller sidewalls of the lower-profile tyres fitted to the 18-inch wheels would perform this role less effectively, and therefore suspension would have to be changed to accommodate this.
Hankook Tire has announced it will double its manufacturing capacity to 10 million tyres per annum by 2011, employing a further 700 skilled workers at its plant in Hungary. 450 new staff will be taken on in 2010 and 250 in 2011. The Korean company said it was “committed to long-term investment in Hungary”, a statement it supports with the tyre manufacturer vocational education and training programme it launched in cooperation with Regional Labour Offices and Lorántffy Zsuzsanna Secondary School in 2009.
Kenya’s Business Daily newspaper reports Kingsway Tyres intends to open its own retreading factory by May 2010. The facility is anticipated to produce 1,000 truck and bus retreads per month, giving it’s the largest capacity of any retreading plant in the country. The tyre importer currently controls 25 per cent of the local market, the Business Daily comments. “With the new retread factory, we are planning to increase the market share to 35 per cent in the next five years,” stated Kingsway managing director Manoj Shah. The company has invested Sh50 million (£404,000) in the new factory.” Shah added that in the new plant Kinsgway is “introducing a new technology that could prolong the mileage span of a retread to almost 90 per cent."
Founded in 1972, Interstate Tires has expanded to the point that it has developed its own unique range. According to company literature, Interstate’s “successful execution of its unique marketing strategy has produced units sales growth that has consistently outpaced that of the replacement tyre industry.” With worldwide distribution and warehouses in Europe and Asia, Interstate ships to every major port and offer reportedly offers “great logistic service to…customers.”
Interstate Tire & Rubber has announced that it will participate in the Latin American & Caribbean Tyre Expo, which is scheduled to be held between 8 and 11 July 2010 at the Atlapa Convention Centre in Panama City, Panama. Interstate Tires reports that it will display its latest products on stand 694 during this show, launching the brand new Interstate Eco Tour Plus tyre and the company’s new commercial range to the Latin American and Caribbean markets.
Bridgestone has outlined plans to invest 105 million euros increasing the capacity of its Poznan tyre factory in Poland. The added capacity will begin to come on-stream in January 2012 and over a two-year period daily output will rise from 23,600 to 29,200 units.
Those with a hankering for milk products will be pleased to hear that the use of Michelin’s X One MaxiTrailer tyres has enabled Leeds based dairy company Arla Foods UK plc to increase the load capacity of its palletised milk deliveries by 50 per cent. Through the added stability the Michelin tyre provides the company’s first variable deck trailer, Arla Foods can now load 36 pallets on board as opposed to 24. The Gray & Adams variable deck trailer is being used by Arla Foods to support a major contract that requires milk to be delivered in palletised loads to a regional distribution centre, from where the retailer amalgamates it with other products prior to delivery to its stores. This process differs from most milk contracts where products are transported in roll cages that are wheeled directly from the trailer onto the shop floor.
Bridgestone Corporation has announced that its Indian subsidiary (Bridgestone India Private Ltd) is to invest 50 billion yen (£357 million; 401 million euros; US$539 million) in a second tyre production plant in the country. According to the company, the latest factory will be built near the city of Pune, Maharashtra State, 170 km southeast of Mumbai.
This new plant is slated to begin passenger car radial tyre (PCR) production and truck and bus radial tyre (TBR) in January 2013 and August 2013 respectively. The company is aiming for capacity 10,000 units per day (PCR) and 3,000 units per day (TBR) by 2020.
On March 24 Bekaert held an opening ceremony for its new technical centre in India. Located near Pune in the state of Maharashtra, the centre is intended to provide the company’s customers in India with enhanced technical services in the form of product quality testing, technical assessments and related dedicated assistance.
On March 19 Apollo Tyres South Africa announced plans to invest R300 million (£27 million) in new equipment and technology for the company’s facilities in Durban and Ladysmith. The upgrades will be implemented over a three-year period.
Sibur-Russian Tyres reports producing a total of 8.1 million tyres during 2009, including 5.4 million passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyres, 2.4 million commercial vehicle tyres and 300,000 other sorts of tyres (such as aviation and motorcycle tyres). The company plans to increase production by 14 per cent during 2010.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
