China Archives - Page 154 of 240 - Tyrepress

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.

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OTR Tyre Specialist Qizhou Diversifying its Range

In the past ten years Qingdao Qizhou Rubber Co. Ltd. has striven to expand its business in export markets and to facilitate this invested approximately US$14 million in the construction of a OTR tyre new factory in 2003. Since the completion of the facility in Qingdao (Shandong Province) in September 2004 the OTR tyre specialist Qizhou has been able to produce around 100,000 tyres per annum. Central to the company’s range is the “Marcher” brand, through which the manufacturer of the “world’s largest OTR tyres” (59/90 R63) is represented in most corners of the globe and in the original equipment market, delivering to, as an example, LeTourneau Technologies for fitment to its dump trucks. The US firm utilises crossply “Marcher” OTR tyres in size 70/70-57 84PR with a L4 tread; deliveries to Australia and North America are made and even involve the largest available LeTourneau dumpers, disclosed Qingdao Qizhou export manager Gavin Liu.

30th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Second Stage “Yokohama Forever Forest” Planting Held in China

Yokohama Rubber reports more tree planting activities, this time in the People’s Republic. On Saturday October 17 some 250 people connected to three Yokohama plants in China attended a jointly-staged second-phase tree-planting ceremony as part of Yokohama Rubber's "Yokohama Forever Forest" project. Workers and their families from Hangzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd. (production and sale of passenger car tyres), Yokohama Hamatitie (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. (production and sale of sealants for passenger cars), and Yokohama Hoses & Coupling (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. (production and sale of hydraulic hoses) joined Yokohama Rubber's overseas trainees and other representatives in the planting of around 2,400 seedlings of trees indigenous to the local area.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Organisers Anticipate 10,000 Visitors at Shandong Province Show

A new show catering to those with an interest in Chinese produced tyres and automotive components will debut next year. Called the China (Guangrao) International Rubber Tire & Auto Accessory Exhibition, the government organised show will take place at the Gurangrao International Expo Center on 9 – 11 May 2010. The exhibition area is anticipated to be as much as 11,000 square metres and host around 300 exhibitors. The organiser predicts more than ten thousand buyers and visitors will attend over the exhibition’s three days.

28th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Safety Record at Goodyear China Plant Site Praised

An important milestone in the safety record at Goodyear’s newest tyre manufacturing facility has been acknowledged: More than one million hours at the site of the company’s Puladian, China plant, now under construction, have been worked without a recordable accident. An award marking this blemish-free record was jointly given by Goodyear and the SSOE Group, the company providing full engineering, procurement, construction management (EPCM) services for the project, to BVEC Piling Contractors, who accepted it on behalf of the on-site workforce.

28th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyrepac Launches Hong Kong Mobile Tyre Service

Tyrepac, reputedly Asia’s first online tyre portal, has launched a mobile service in Hong Kong. “We are extremely pleased to now offer the same convenience as consumers in Singapore [where the company is based]…to consumers in Hong Kong.” said Tyrepac managing director and co-founder, Ler Hwee Tiong. According to the company, battery change and “a host of other services on top of the tyre changing” will soon be offered.

28th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Alliance Tire Buys GPX Assets

Company News, International News, Legislation, News

Just a day after GPX International Tire Corporation (GPX) filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Israel-based Alliance Tire Group announced it has signed an agreement to purchase certain assets for a reported $38.3 million. According to Alliance, the deal includes: “GPX’s US operations, customer relationships, warehouse footprint, worldwide rights to the Galaxy and Primex brands, the company’s medium radial truck tyre distribution business and the Company’s South African entity, GPX Tyre South Africa (Pty.).”

According to GPX the purpose of entering chapter 11 was “to separate the company’s operations into three distinct businesses in order to facilitate the sales of those businesses in transactions, which will allow 95 per cent of the company’s current North American workforce to remain employed.” Crucially, the statement points out that “the company will wind down its European operations.” GPX also explained that it has buyers lined to purchase various parts of the business.

27th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Q3 Figures Show Improvement

Michelin reports its decline in unit sales during the third quarter of 2009 and over the first nine months of the year is “in line with the decline in global tyre markets.” During the most recent quarter the manufacturer recorded a 14.0 per cent drop in unit sales, a figure that shows a lift in sales compared to the preceding months: in the first nine months of the year unit sales were 20.1 per cent down. The French tyre major generated net sales of 3.754 billion euros in the July to September quarter, a 10.9 per cent decrease on the corresponding three months in 2008. During the nine months to September 30, 2009 net sales amounted to 10.888 billion euros, a year-on-year decline of 12.5 per cent. Deutsche Bank analysts comment that third quarter sales were “slightly better than expected”; sales also beat the expected average of 3.727 billion euros gleaned from and a Reuters survey of six analysts. While volumes were as bad as Deutsche Bank’s analysts anticipated, Michelin’s four per cent price-mix for the quarter was a pleasant surprise. Price mix during the nine months was 7.6 per cent.

27th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

FIA Elects Jean Todt as New President

World motorsport and motoring body the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (or FIA to its friends) has announced Jean Todt as its new president for a four-year term. The FIA General Assembly staged its annual meeting, at which voting was completed, in Paris last week. Todt scooped 135 votes, while the other candidate, Ari Vatanen managed 49. 12 abstained or produced invalid votes. Voting in the General Assembly was made by secret ballot. The votes were counted in private by the FIA legal department, under the supervision of scrutinisers proposed by the two presidential candidates and designated by the General Assembly. The entire voting procedure was supervised by an external Huissier de Justice (French state-appointed public witness).

26th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Hankook Evaluates Southeast Asian Sites for New Plant

International News

Hankook Tire intends to build a new factory – its sixth overseas plant – somewhere in Southeast Asia. South Korea’s Yonhap news reports company CEO Suh Seung-hwa as stating on October 23 that Hankook may spend between US$250 million and $300 million building the new facility, which is expected to have an annual capacity of ten million units.

26th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Best Choice Plans to Broaden Sunew Range

Taking pride of place on Best Choice International Trading’s stand at CITExpo was the current product range within the company’s “Sunew” own brand. The Beijing headquartered business now offers its “Sunew YS618” in 22 16 to 18-inch high performance sizes, and European region sales and export manager Stephen Wu reports that before the end of the year a further six 15-inch sizes will be added to the range – a line-up that, until recently, was marketed under the manufacturer’s “Yellow Sea” brand name. The coming year will see further additions to the Sunew portfolio; the range’s rim diameter ceiling will be pushed upwards with the addition of 19 and 20-inch products. Yet despite these plans to think big, Stephen Wu explains that the company is by no means turning its back on the smaller Sunew sizes. “They are under-represented in our range,” the manager explains. In the future, Best Choice also hopes to establish itself more firmly in France, Italy and Eastern Europe. At present the company is most strongly represented in the UK, Germany, the Benelux countries and Spain.

26th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Cabot Commissions World’s Largest Carbon Black Plant

Cabot Corporation today (23 October 2009) commissioned 150,000 metric tons of manufacturing capacity at its carbon black facility in Tianjin, China. The plant is now said to be the world’s biggest with annual production capacity of nearly 300,000 metric tonnes. Cabot share rose 4.52 per cent to US$24.72 in response to the news. The giant manufacturing project is being conducted by Cabot Chemical (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., an equity joint venture between Cabot (China) Limited, and Shanghai Coking Chemical Company, a member of the Huayi Group. Cabot and Shanghai Coking have been joint venture partners since 1988.

According to the company’s 2008 annual report, in 2007, 2007 and 2008 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company accounted for 12 per cent, 12 per cent and 14 per cent of Cabot’s annual consolidated net sales. No other customer individually represented more than 10 per cent of net sales. In total tyre manufacturers spent $320 million with Cabot, according to the company’s accounts receivable data, more than double the $169 million they spent in 2007.

23rd October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Despite Recession Scars, Bosch Sees Itself Well Positioned for the Future

German automotive technology supplier Bosch admits the recession has left a clear mark on its results. For 2009, the Bosch Group expects sales to decrease by 15 per cent, to some 38 billion euros. In its automotive businesses, the decline in worldwide sales will be as much as 20 per cent at year-end. Yet following the deep recession, Bosch Automotive Group chairman Dr. Bernd Bohr sees clear signs that the automotive business’s situation has stabilised. Orders have begun to improve and during the past few months Bosch has acquired major new projects. This is expected to support the company’s growth in the coming years. However, Bohr cautioned “it could take us until 2012 to return to the pre-recession levels of 2007."

23rd October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Full Range Supplier Guizhou Tyre Introduces Flotation Tyre

For Guizhou Tyre, as one of China’s leading truck tyre specialists, CITExpo is an essential event. At this year’s exhibition in Shanghai the Guiyang, Guizhou Province based company presented a large section of its range, which is produced and marketed solely under the “Advance” brand name. “We are a full range supplier,” states assistant general manager Edward Zhang. In addition to commercial vehicle tyres the company produces radial and crossply tyres of various types, including light commercial vehicles, OTR, industrial and solid rubber. The company also manufactures passenger car tyres, although the volume produced is “very few”, Zhang admits. During the CITExpo shows Guizhou showed its new, self-produced, flotation and crane tyres for the very first time.

21st October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Aeolus Tyre Profits Surge 1076%

Aeolus Tyre Co Ltd net profit attributable to shareholders grew 1076.26 per cent year-on-year to 124.85 million yuan (£11.033 million; 12.242 million euros; US$18.284 million) in the third quarter. In the first three quarters the company’s net profits are said to have jumped 170 per cent to 254.4 million yuan (£22.4 million; 24.943 million euros; $37.265 million). Shanghai-listed Aeolus put the exponential growth in net profits down to a significant decline in production costs.

21st October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

MAI Sees Positive Results From Chinese Takeover

Since the Italian MAI Group acquired the OTR assets of China’s Shandong Jinyu Tire Co. Ltd. one and a half years ago, a few developments have occurred at the company's new production site. According to Ian Thomas, the Italian OTR tyre specialist’s head of sales and marketing, over the last 18 months production technology at the Dongying (Shandong Province) site has reached European levels. Investments have been made in shearography equipment and today in China the company is able to examine 100 per cent of the tyres it produces before delivery. Furthermore, MAI has placed several of its own top people into the acquired factory’s management, and the majority of engineers in its R&D department come from Turkey, where the Mai-Group already operates its second factory. Equally positive are the developments made in the compound used in China. “We are a European tyre manufacturer with a factory in China,” clarified Ian Thomas – the company, it would seem, has nothing in common with the “usual suspects” in China.

20th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors