Now one of the largest tyre-producing countries in the world, China has an indisputable influence on the direction of global tyre trade. The home of both fast-growing up-and-coming brands as well as a burgeoning domestic market, this tag chronicles China’s involvement with the tyre business.
A new Infinity range is scheduled for release later this year. The tyre maker has disclosed little about the asymmetric pattern high performance, UHP, 4×4 and van line-up, however Jorge Crespo, European general manager for Infinity Tyres, reports it will be unveiled to dealers at the Infinity Partners Day in Beijing, China at the start of May before its first public showing at June’s Reifen 2012 show in Germany.
AM Bromley has launched TMS Log Graph and enhanced TMS Internal Sensors for its Tire Monitor System for off the road vehicles. Manufactured independently by AM Bromley, the TMS System provides visible, real-time data to drivers and managers to help them return the best value on their outlay on tyres. The initial TMS range launched in 2005 and the company says it is now used by thousands of OTR vehicles across the world, with a “surge of interest from developing regions including India and China”.
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. has agreed to establish a China-based joint venture company to manufacture and distribute urethane seat cushions for transportation machinery. The agreement was signed with Guangdong TGPM Automotive Industry Group Co., Ltd., headquartered in Foshan City, Guangdong Province.
In his 24 January State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama claimed the country’s trade cases against China have made a difference. Singling out a particular sector, Obama said “over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tyres.” Words that should, on the face of it, bring cheer to the US tyre industry.
Toyo Tire & Rubber has established a new company in Thailand to manufacture and distribute a distinctly non-tyre product. The new business, Toyo Rubber Chemical Products (Thailand) Limited, has been established in order to manufacture and distribute cleaning blades, which are components used in office equipment such as photocopiers, printers and fax machines. The new company is to be part of Toyo’s Urethane Business Unit.
According to Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries estimates, in 2012 China will produce some 750,000 tonnes of natural rubber, an increase of around six per cent on last year. Yet during the same period the country is expected to consume 3,610,000 tonnes of the commodity. To help meet this huge demand for imported natural rubber, China’s Hainan Natural Rubber Industry Group has signed an agreement with Sierra Leone, a deal expected to be the largest agricultural investment in the West African country’s history.
Bosch’s Automotive Aftermarket division has agreed to buy the Service Solutions business of SPX Corporation, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The deal, valued by the company at 1.15 billion dollars (roughly 883 million euros), was signed in New York City on 23 January 2012. SPX Service Solutions develops, manufactures and sells diagnostic and service tools, workshop equipment, and software for the global automotive aftermarket. The deal follows Bosch's earlier takeover of Taiwan-based Unipoint, which supplies starters and alternators, and a series of management personnel appointments in the UK.
A fifth production unit for producing tyre tread blacks is to be added Orion Engineered Carbons’ facility in Yeosu, South Korea. The new unit will increase the plant’s annual output by 36 tonnes to a total of 188 tonnes. The project is expected to be complete in May 2013. According to Dietmar Balschukat, Orion's Asia-Pacific region general manager, the fifth unit will also produce carbon blacks for export, particularly to Japan and China.
Tyre changer, wheel balancer and lift manufacturer, Hennessy Industries has formed a partnership with Hockman-Lewis Ltd., an international export management company, to handle sales and marketing of its Coats, Ammco and Bada branded products throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim, Tire Review reports.The new partnership represents a commitment to capitalising on the increasing demand for automotive service equipment in those markets, said Hennessy.
In its recently released annual report for the 2010-11 financial year, MRF Tyres estimates the entire Indian tyre industry’s annual turnover as being Rs 300,000 million (£3.8 billion), with exports accounting for Rs 36,000 (£455.8 million) of this. MRF states that during the year to the end of September 2011 an estimated 119.2 million tyres were produced in India by 39 tyre companies; the ten largest of these produced 95 per cent of this these.
According to CENS, growing demand for car tyres in China is expected to continue soaring, and Taiwanese tyre-makers are ready to take advantage of the opportunity. For example, Cheng Shin expects to see 10 to 20 per cent revenue growth this year, according to some institutional investors said. Other tyre-makers Kenda Rubber Industrial Co., Nankang Rubber Tire Corp., Hwa Fong Rubber Ind., Ltd. and Federal Tire Corp., are also looking at increased business in China.
Reifen 2012 at Messe Essen on between 5 and 8 June next year will once again honour pioneering solutions with its bi-annual innovation awards. Messe Essen and German tyre association BRV will honour particularly pioneering products and services and are now calling for nominations.
Following approval from antitrust authorities, the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division has completed its takeover of Taiwan’s Unipoint Group. The parties involved in the transaction have agreed not to disclose the purchase price and report that both existing Unipoint brands – Unipoint and NSA – will be retained by Bosch.
With the first Chinese brand models set for sale in the UK and various European markets by the end of 2012, Chinese tyre manufacturers with OE-supply deals in their homeland could begin to see a very small amount of pull-through.
While some Chinese cars such as the Shanghai Automotive-owned MG brand are already driving on British roads under local monikers, Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd’s Emgrand EC7 family hatchback and saloon will be something of a first when it goes on sale in the UK. Geely, which is currently mid-way through a UK dealer recruitment programme targeting 40 dealers, appears to be trying to do what Hyundai and Kia have done in recent years and build a position quickly from scratch by offering “good quality, really good value for money and a long warranty.”
Although six of the world’s top 20 largest tyre manufacturers are located in China and/or Taiwan, and despite the fact that all of these have global ambitions, for the most part these companies are still developing their positions in international markets. Likewise while reams have been written about the top names and more recently there has been increased coverage of the activities of the Korean bloc (Hankook, Kumho and Nexen), far less detail is reported about the leading Chinese players. It has to be said that this is partly because of the media’s gravitation towards well-known names but is also because – and this is something of a generalisation – Chinese manufacturers don’t have the best reputation when it comes to international communications.
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