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.
In the interest of protecting its domestic industry, India’s government has implemented a 10 per cent anti-dumping duty upon tyre manufacturing machinery imported from China. The country’s Finance Ministry reports that this duty will be imposed upon the landed value of all Chinese produced tyre vulcanisers and rubber processing units.
The sandbags outside one of the lobbies to the hotel served as an oddly timed metaphor for the 2010 Kumho Tire USA Dealer Meeting last week in Desert Palms, California, Tire Review reports. An unrelenting rain that caused floods across much of Southern California had pounded the area for a week. Its parent company in financial turmoil, Kumho Tire USA has been flooded by a rising tide of questions from media, dealers and suppliers, and the company used the meeting to address its future.
In the USA Lawmakers from Texas and Oklahoma called on Thursday for a government report on the economy-wide effects of the 35 per cent tariff that President Barack Obama imposed on tyre imports from China, reports Tire Review. “I am concerned that the administration's tyre tax will cost us jobs in the United States and raise prices for tyres for hardworking Americans,” representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, said in a statement. “I want to make sure that the administration has all the facts so that it can best determine how and when to end that tax.”
Hero Tires has released corporate promotional videos for both the English and Chinese markets. The European film, presented in English, consists of a montage incorporating the manufacturing of various Hero tyre models and such aspirational imagery as a fashion show. Meanwhile the Chinese video draws on the history of the country in order to emphasise the heritage of the brand, which is manufactured in China.
Michelin is planning to invest 700 million (£610 million; $989 million) in China by 2012 in order to build a passenger car and truck tyre manufacturing plant. Construction of the factory, which will be built in Shenyang where Michelin already has another plant, will double the company’s annual capacity in China. In addition Michelin also plans to invest 300 million euros (261 million; $423 million) in a greenfield passenger car tyre plant in Resende, Brazil, which will start producing in “early 2012.”
Qingdao, China based Fullrun Tyre Corp., Ltd. specialises primarily in the production and export of tyres for passenger vehicles, trucks and off-road vehicles. In addition to its own four brands – Fullrun, Antyre, Fullway and Clear (all of which, says Fullrun Tyre, have passed various certifications, including Dot, ECE and S-Mark) – the company acts as an agent for more than 100 brands from 56 Chinese factories. In 2009 the company achieved a turnover of US$150 million.
Associated Press has brought details of plans afoot by Washington Tire Corporation to erect an 18-building factory for the production of off-road, truck and passenger car tyres. The company, who in past times was known as American Tire Corporation, will apparently commence work on this Ephrata, Washington State project in April 2010.
The World Trade Organisation will make a ruling on the complaint lodged by China last September over the US tariffs implemented on Chinese manufactured consumer tyres. A WTO spokesperson has confirmed a panel of experts who will decide upon the validity of China’s claim has already been established.
Following the launch of the Maxxis Rewards national promotion last year, which the tyre manufacturer says was “highly successful”, 2010’s prizes have been rolled out in conjunction with Grouptyre – the exclusive Maxxis distributor in the UK. The 2010 programme once again features a VIP trip as the main prize. Based on the volume of Maxxis car, van and 4×4 tyres they buy within the promotional period, the top 15 dealers will win a holiday in Shanghai, China’s largest city and the world’s largest cargo port, which will include an exclusive tour of the Maxxis factory in Kunshan.
Hankook Tire has reported record global sales and operating profits of 4.8 trillion (£2.604 billion; 2.985 billion euros) and 549.3 billion won respctively. In the period global sales grew 18 per cent year-on-year, while operating profits shot up nearly five-fold (2008: 114.2 billion won), despite the global recession. 2009 also saw the company’s European production centre in Racalmas, Hungary turn a profit after sales shot up 55 per cent year-on-year (see table). Now the company’s management has raised the bar for 2010 with a global sales target to exceed 5 trillion won (£2.717 billion; 3.109 billion euros) for the first time in its history.
Half a year after announcing a postponement in the setting up of its Singapore based butyl rubber facility, synthetic rubber company Lanxess is bringing the timetable forward again. The company will now hold a groundbreaking ceremony in May 2010, and production is expected to start in the first quarter of 2013. The 100,000 tons per annum plant on Jurong Island will require an investment of up to 400 million euros.
The United Steelworkers of America says it has “complete faith” that the World Trade Organization will uphold the US government’s imposition of an added tariff to consumer tyres imported from China. The WTO has acted on an appeal from China to investigate the three-year, tiered added tariffs imposed on China-made consumer tyres last September. The tariffs – 35 per cent for the first year, 30 per cent the second, and 25 per cent for the third – came on top of an existing four per cent standard import tariff.
News reports from Geneva say that the World Trade Organization will now launch a formal investigation into the Obama Administration’s imposition of a three-year added tariff on imported China-made consumer tyres. The first meeting in the investigation is supposed to occur on January 19, according to reports. Reports say that it could take as long as a year for the case to be resolved.
Even as the debt-laden Kumho Asiana Group continues with its overall corporate restructuring plan, more details are starting to emerge about the fate of its Kumho Tire Co. unit. Both Kumho Tire and sister unit Kumho Industrial have entered a debt “work-out” program with creditors, and the “majority” of those creditors have agreed to freeze debt repayments for three months to allow the companies “time to carry out a planned restructuring programme.”
The value of Chinese tyres exported to the US is nearing a four-year low after they plunged 37.5 per cent in October to $130 million as a result of swinging 35 per cent import tariffs imposed by the US government on 26 September 2009. According to the country's General Administration of Customs, China exported 240 million new tyres in the first 10 months of 2009, 9.6 per cent less than in the same period in 2008, sources reported. The export value of the tyres plummeted 10.5 per cent year-on-year, hitting $6.2 billion, and the average price for a tyre was said to be $25.40 (down 1 per cent year-on-year).
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