European passenger car sales grew 12 per cent during May (up 2.5 per cent year-to-date), while the truck tyre market is said to have grown 17 per cent (up 1 per cent year-to-date). Deutsche Bank analysts report that the figures sourced from Michelin point to a completely different story in North America.
Apollo Tyres, is reportedly planning acquisitions in Europe and South East Asia in the current financial year. “We will be interested in acquiring companies that will synergise the group’s expertise in the areas of manufacturing, overseas markets and new technology,” Neeraj Kanwar, joint managing director, Apollo Tyres, told India Business Line.
Acquisition will also be a strategy to increase the proportion of radialisation in the company’s truck and passenger car tyres. In January, the company acquired South Africa-based tyre manufacturer Dunlop Tyres international, a radial tyre manufacturer for roughly £36 million, 50 million euros.
Bridgestone Europe has announced that work has started on in its Tatabanya, Hungary high-performance passenger and light truck tyre plant. Construction of the about 190 million euro complex is being financed and managed by Bridgestone Hungary Manufacturing Ltd – a newly-formed subsidiary of Bridgestone Europe NV/SA – with completion due at the end of 2007. Production is scheduled to reach more than 8,000 tyres a day by 2009. The company expects to employ more than 200 people by 2009.
Sibur-Russian Tires’ (SRT) current restructuring programme brings with it a lot challenges. Hundreds of millions have already been invested, meaning some of the company’s figures are in the red. Talking to Tyres & Accessories, SRT’s new director for strategy and business development explains what the Russian market leader is aiming for and where the company is looking for assistance. There is even the possibility that the company could be the subject of a merger talks.
According to Igor Karavajev, director for strategy and business development at Sibur-Russian Tires, increasing the tyre manufacturer’s competitiveness is of utmost importance at the moment. Although SRT still supplies 39.6 per cent (SRT figures) of the Russian tyre market with its products, competitors Nizhnekamskshina (30 per cent) and Amtel-Vredestein (22.6 per cent) are not far behind.
Continental Sime Tyre Sdn Bhd is targeting to raise its output of passenger car tyres to 5.5 million by the middle of 2007, up from last year’s 3.5 million units. The company, a 70:30 merger between Continental AG and Sime Darby Bhd, said it is attempting to increase production at its Alor Star factory to 4.5 million tyres by the end of this year and move passenger tyre manufacturing to Alor Star as well.
Nokian Tyres has recorded pre-tax profits of 10.1 million euros in the first quarter, compared with 13.7 million a year ago. In the period January to March 2006, Nokian Tyres Group recorded net sales of 149.4 million euros, an increase of 15.4 per cent on the corresponding period a year earlier. Net sales in Nordic countries increased by 6.9 per cent, in Russia and other CIS countries by 35.2 per cent, in Eastern Europe by 8.7 per cent and in North America by 25.4 per cent from the previous year.
Yokohama is planning to establish a passenger car tyre production plant in Europe in 2008. The news came in the context of a dealer presentation by the German distribution company Yokohama Reifen GmbH. Observers suggest that the move is likely to be a way of strengthening ongoing OE projects and relationships. Yokohama did not specify which locations are being considering, give details of which tyre lines might be produced, or suggest how much would be invested.
A type of rubberised road surface is being trialled for the first time in the UK on a Nottinghamshire footpath. It is hoped that the new coating, which is made using the rubber from old car tyres will make it easier for disabled people and runners to use the paths.
Scott Wilson, in collaboration with Nottinghamshire County Council, Charles Lawrence International Ltd, the Countryside Agency and the University of Nottingham, was awarded the funding as part of WRAP’s (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) Tyres Programme, which seeks to support demonstration trials where recycled rubber is being used in new applications utilising existing technologies.
The ERMC-compiled Europool figures report that the total UK passenger car tyre market amounted to 16,111,696 units in 2005 (down 1.9 per cent on 2004). This compares with a slightly larger drop in the Europe-wide total of 117,242,516 (down 2.9 per cent on 2004). However, due to the way these numbers are compiled (excluding tyres that are not produced within reporting countries) they are perhaps overly optimistic. As industry insiders will be aware, the total market is actually more than 10 per cent larger and has fallen significantly more than one to two per cent in recent years. New figures compiled by market research company GfK put the total market at 18.49 million units, down 13 per cent over 2004 in terms of volume (21.33 million in 2004 and 22.58 million in 2003).
Not all of the Soviet Union’s tyre manufacturers exhibited at Tires & Rubber Moscow in March. While Amtel and Sibur decided not to come, Niznekamshina, Belshina, Moscow Tyre Plant and Rosava (from the Ukraine) all booked floorpsace.
Rosava, a closed joint-stock company which is listed but not traded on the stock exchange, belonged to Amtel until a year ago, then a Ukrainian investment bank called “Finance and Credit” took over. Before and after that change of ownership, the annual production was and is about 6.7 million tyres, explains Rosava’s deputy commercial director Roman Y. Rybachuk. This output includes some 6 million (radial only) passenger car tyres and 700,000 truck tyres. The manufacturer supplies about 50 per cent of the Ukrainian PC market, Mr Rybachuk continues. And about 20 per cent of the annual output (1.4 million units) is exported to Russia, and another 10 per cent to the other CIS states.
Sibur-Russian Tires’ (SRT) current restructuring programme brings with it a lot challenges. Hundreds of millions have already been invested, meaning some of the company’s figures are in the red. Talking to Tyres & Accessories, SRT’s new director for strategy and business development explains what the Russian market leader is aiming for and where the company is looking for assistance. There is even the possibility that the company could be the subject of a merger talks.
Avex Trade Ltd. from the Czech Republic is acknowledged worldwide as an expert in tyre rack storage solutions and is one of the biggest producers of steel storage systems for tyre, automotive, nuclear and chemical industries. Avex exports most of its production and the daily production capacity reaches 80 tons. Development is on-going and Avex is ready to cooperate with its customers on finding new solutions. Powder paint, hot dip and cold galvanization are available for surface treatment. Customers can benefit from Avex’s more than 10 years’ experience.
Making an appearance as an exhibitor at Reifen 2006 will be Far-East based Sumo Tyres who will promote their growing range of Firenza radial truck tyres and launch a new Firenza high performance pattern at the same time.
As a thriving division of the Stamford Tyres group of companies, Sumo will be using the show to further enhance the company’s Firenza brand in the European market and an extensive collection of truck tyres will be on display for inspection by both existing and potential new customers.
The size of today’s Russian truck tyre market is about 12 million units per year. Together with improving road infrastructure – in particular in urban areas – and the increasing importance of Western products and technology, the retreading industry too is moving ahead in Russia. It is not only the demand for retreaded truck tyres, which is growing, but also the demand for truck tyres that were retreaded in Russia and other former Soviet states. But one problem remains: in general casings have to be imported because Russian-made truck tyres are not good enough quality to be retreaded, say most market experts.
Investors have ploughed hundreds of millions of euros into the Russian tyre industry in recent years, of which the largest part has been invested in machinery and equipment. Market leader Harburg-Freudenberger from Hamburg in Germany has been operating its own distribution subsidiary in Moscow since earlier this year. This is responsible for the co-ordination of all activities on the growing Russian tyre market. In particular it is the high performance PC tyre sector where machinery and equipment suppliers see a lack of sophistication on the part of the domestic manufacturers.
“Harburg-Freudenberger was able to preserve its contacts” during the breakdown of the Soviet Union, explains sales director Jens Ritter in an interview with Tyres & Accessories. The traditional German company, which was listed until last year as ThyssenKrupp Elastomertechnik, had good contact with Russian tyre manufacturers and the central Muscovite research institute for the tyre industry decades ago.
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