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Ceat Close to Land Sale Deal

India’s Ceat Ltd is reportedly close to closing a deal that will see 2.8 hectares of surplus land at its Mumbai factory sold off. This sale will most likely take place some time before March 2008, according to managing director Paras K. Chowdhary. He added that the proceeds from the sale would be injected into the company’s plans to expand capacity.

“We are very close to finalising the sale. We had wanted to close it by September but it has been delayed.” he said. “A large part of the expansion will be met from the sale and internal accruals.”

10th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo to Expand OTR Production Six-Fold

News that Apollo Tyres was considering some form of joint venture with Indian mining vehicle manufacturer Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) and its most significant customer, Coal India, was first disclosed in early April 2007. Eight months later India’s Economic Times reports that the tyremaker has entered into a tripartite agreement with these two companies for the supply of OTR tyres.

10th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Management & Unions Meet to Discuss MRF Lockout

Managers from the MRF tyre plant at Tiruvottiyur in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu met with union representatives on December 7 in an attempt to resolve the deadlock over the factory lockout that began four days earlier. Plant management announced an indefinite lockout on December 3, the result of their claim of employee indiscipline and inability to meet productivity norms. A previous meeting on December 5 failed to resolve the issue.

7th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyre Exports Increase, Imports Double in India

Despite the increasing strength of the rupee tyre manufacturers in India are still enjoying export growth, reports the Hindu Business Line. According to figures presented in the Indian business daily, exports increased by 19.2 per cent in the current financial year, with approximately 3.1 million units exported during the period. During the same months of the previous fiscal year total exports were in the vicinity of 2.6 million units.

“Exports in 2006-07 had shown a decline, as the demand in the domestic industry was healthy,” said Apollo Tyres COO and joint managing director Neeraj Kanwar. “With serving the domestic industry being a priority, exports seem to have slowed down. But now the industry has added capacity to increase its competitiveness, which would make the export growth come back to earlier levels. We expect exports to remain buoyant.”

6th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper Appoints New Asia Executives

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.

4th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

JK Tyre to Expand China Outsourcing

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.

29th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Rapid Growth the Hallmark of Yongsheng’s Short History

Exhibited at CITExpo with well-known distributor the Meir Group were products from the Shandong Yongsheng Rubber Co. This Qingdao based manufacturer has been in business for 21 years, originally producing bias tyres. However in 2003 the company invested in a new production facility for the manufacture of radial products. Known as the Shandong Santai Rubber Co., Ltd, this new factory possessed an initial capacity of 600,000 units per annum.

29th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli to Continue its Forward Looking Strategy in China

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.

28th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Phil Hopper Joins Harvie Prema Team

Mark Prince, UK sales manager at Harvie Prema has announced the recent addition of Phil Hopper to his team. Hopper will take on an active sales role in the field, servicing customers in the North Wales, Liverpool & Merseyside region. Phil brings with him a broad knowledge of the tyre industry and the automotive after market. After a long and successful career already in direct sales he commented that he is looking forward to what he sees as a great opportunity to further his career in sales with an established company bursting with ambition and tremendous capacity for future growth.

28th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Marangoni Industrial Tyres Invests in Sri Lanka

Marangoni Industrial Tyres recently invested in the production of superelastic tyres in Sri Lanka, mainly for use on fork lift trucks but also for other equipment, such as: loading platforms, loaders and other industrial and commercial machinery. Company representatives did not give details of the investment that took place.

Division president, and group vice-president Mr Giovanni Marangoni stated: “This investment, part of the division’s development plans, is aimed at increasing the company’s production capacity, expanding the current customer base and -in general- increasing market share. We already have a significant presence in Europe, given the large number of customers and important partnerships with specialists in the distribution and servicing of industrial tyres. Nonetheless, we are convinced that our expertise, the superior quality of our products, and an increasingly solid industrial base will allow us to achieve even better results in the coming years”.

28th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin to Guarantee Annual Supply of Tyres to Recycler

Michelin has recently agreed to guarantee the supply of at least 6,000 tonnes of end of life and reject truck tyres each year to Newark based recycling company Charles Lawrence International, who will convert the waste tyres into rubber surfacing material for sporting and children’s playground usage. About 200 tonnes of material will be shipped each week from Michelin in Dundee and Ballymena to the Nottinghamshire recycler.

The agreement is all the more significant as presently the UK has no legislation requiring tyre manufacturers to take responsibility for end of life products; Michelin’s actions in this area to date, in this country at least, have been purely voluntary. “Michelin has a global strategy for minimising the effect we have on the environment, and although there is no legal need to do it, we see recycling our end of life tyres as a moral obligation,” said Michelin UK managing director Jim Rickard. “Charles Lawrence is a world leader in the sector and we are very pleased to have secured an agreement to put what is effectively our waste to good use.”

26th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

China to Play a Role in SRT’s Growth

The attendance of Russian tyre major Sibur – Russian Tyres (SRT) at CITExpo 2007 was perhaps indicative of the unique position the Shanghai show holds as the largest specialist tyre exhibition in the world’s most watched market. Exhibiting alongside the Xarello Group, an important export agent for Sibur – Russian Tyres, the Russian manufacturer and the overseas wholesaler were not seeking to raise their profile with Chinese consumers, nor were they looking for local agents to distribute tyres. So what exactly then attracted the two companies to an exhibition in Shanghai?

22nd November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Maywood Adds to its Force Range

Following the successful launch of the Force 36 3.6 tonne electro-hydraulic 2-post lift, Maywood has announced it will be adding the Force 60 to its range. The Force 60 is an electro-hydraulic two-post lift with base frame. It compliments Maywood’s range of lifts for large and heavy cars as well as the light truck market. Within this range Maywood offers the Hofmann 5 tonne two-post lift, which has vehicle manufacturer approval from Ford, Volkswagen, Renault and many others. Maywood believes the Force 60 can now give a workshop even greater capacity at the same price, and offers convenience through removing the necessity for a vehicle owner to empty the vehicle before the lift is raised. Therefore this lift is ideal for “Transit” like vehicles, but is also capable of lifting the majority of vehicles available in the UK.

21st November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Retread Technologies – 10 Years in North America

November 16 marked the tenth anniversary of Michelin Retread Technologies (MRT) operating in North America. Since its beginning in 1997, MRT has grown to include 45 franchisees, with 77 retread locations across the US, Canada and Mexico, and during this time the retreader has opened a tread pressing plant in Covington, Georgia. The company doubled the capacity of this facility in 2005 and two years later built a second tread pressing plant in Querétaro, Mexico.

“The pace at which Michelin Retread Technologies has grown since its inception is a tremendous tribute to the quality and workmanship of our franchisees, as well as the value created by the innovative MRT process and products,” said Jean-Michel Guillon, chief operating officer, Michelin Americas Truck Tires. “Being able to apply some of our new tyre technologies to the retread products certainly has brought significant value to the fleet customers.”

20th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Increasing Capacity in China

Michelin reports it is increasing its passenger car tyre capacity in China by 50 per cent, to 15 million units, and doubling truck tyre capacity to 4 million. This significant increase in capacity will mostly serve the local market. The tyremaker states it aims to grab an 11 per cent share of the passenger car tyre market in China (8 per cent in the OE segment, 15 per cent in for replacement market tyres) and 9 per cent of the truck tyre market. Turnover, which at present is 1 billion euros or 6 per cent of group sales, is expected to almost triple in the next five years.

19th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors