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.
China’s Supreme People’s Court has ruled in favour of Bridgestone Corporation in a lawsuit that investigated the alleged infringement of its tyre tread design rights by Chinese manufacturer Triangle Tyre Co., Ltd.
Exmile Tyre may be the OTR tyre OE supplier you have never heard of. However, according to the company, Exmile provides OE services to “more than 20 global and domestic machinery and equipment manufacturers” such as: Jungheinrich, Doosan, Terex, Manitou and Tailift. In the replacement market, Exmile tyre reports that it enjoys a good reputation and growth in countries like Australia, USA, South East Asia, East Europe, Mexico, Colombia and Chile.
Cooper Tire & Rubber has completed its purchase of a 65 per cent interest in China-based Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co., Ltd. (GRT). GRT produces truck and bus radial tyres for global markets and will manufacture these to meet Cooper’s customer needs in North America, as well as in Asia and other markets. In the future, passenger car tyres may also be manufactured at the one-million-square-foot GRT facility, which has room for further expansion.
Reifen China 2016 open its doors at the Shanghai New International exhibition centre today – 1 December. The show organised by Messe Essen in partnership with CURC and co-located with RubberTech appears to have attracted similar numbers of exhibitors and visitors as it did 12 months ago, with much talk at the show related to the pressure overcapacity and US import tariffs have put on the manufacturing business.
One Chinese and two Thai partners have agreed to invest in a new joint venture passenger car and truck tyre factory in Thailand to supply both the domestic and export markets. The joint venture company hasn’t yet been named and will be established by June 2017. A total of 1 billion baht (£22.5 million) is to be invested in the new facility.
Kobe Steel, Ltd. has launched a new tyre testing machine, a tyre uniformity machine called the Librota-GS. According to the company, the new model has the world’s fastest cycle time of 18 seconds per tyre and the world’s highest repeated measurement accuracy.
Kobe Steel is regarded as a top manufacturer in the field of uniformity machines, with an estimated 30 per cent global market share. Kobe Steel plans to supply the new model to tyre makers in North America, Europe and regions throughout the world, aiming to capture further share of the market.
No review of 2016 would be complete without some reference to Brexit. Before the referendum result on 23 June, few people thought it would happen. Now the vote of 52 per cent in favour of leaving the European Union has long been counted, we can’t avoid talking about Brexit. Furthermore, with Donald Trump having won the US presidential election on 8 November in what he predicted would be “Brexit+++” the impact of the UK vote has taken on even greater significance.
Reifen China, which is described as “the trade fair for the Asian tyre market” is ready to run from 1 to 3 December 2016. The show is being held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in the Pudong area of the city.
Reifen China, which is organised by China United Rubber Corporation and Messe Essen will present wheels, tyres, repair material, valves, garage equipment and accessories amongst other products.
Following the implementation of US import tariffs in the last year (car tyres 2015; truck tyres 2016) and the widespread recognition of vast oversupply in the Chinese manufacturing base, there has been talk of consolidation of tyre industry in the People’s Republic for some time.
In the last few weeks however, it has become apparent that several Dongying, Shandong-based tyre manufacturers (especially those found in the Gungrao district) have experienced serious difficulties resulting in bankruptcies, buyouts and mergers. Now the consolidation trend appears to be gathering speed.
Deruibao Tire was the first to go pop more than a year ago, taking the private brand orders of some well-known wholesalers and importers with it, before its assets were taken on by fast-growing Qingdao Doublestar in what some characterised as a shotgun wedding, but was also a sign of things to come. Several local Chinese news sources named Dongying-based Hengyu Tire as the next to go (with the latter apparently declaring bankruptcy on 14 February), followed by the smaller and younger O’Green and Watson Tyre factories.
At the same time, various Chinese tyre distributors report that Yongtai Chemical’s tyre operations have shut down. Company representatives were not available for comment. However, we do know that Yongtai-owned Covpress (a Coventry-based panel metal supplier to well-known OEMs including Jaguar Land Rover) has entered administration. And furthermore, DMack – which had made itself popular selling World Rally Championship tyres made at Yongtai Chemical – switched production of its tarmac competition tyres to Cooper Tire Europe’s Avon Motorsport division in Melksham in mid-August (see “Yongtai Chemical-owned Covpress in administration” for further details).
Dunlop-shod Signatech Alpine became 2016 FIA World Endurance (WEC) LMP2 champions at 6 Hours of Shanghai, the penultimate round of the championship, having finished fourth. The race was won by G-Drive Racing, also on Dunlop rubber, in its second consecutive victory. Additionally the ByKolles CLM claimed its first win of 2016 in the LMP1 Privateer class.
Rubber, plastics and composites testing company Smithers Rapra recently held its first Tire Technology Symposium in China. According to the research and testing firm, the event brought together about 70 members of the Chinese tyre industry to share technical knowledge, regulatory expertise and business insight. The symposium covered the industry supply chain, including automotive OEMs, tyre manufacturers and retailers.
Coventry-based car panel OE supplier Covpress entered administration at the end of September, with administrators stressing there are no current plans for redundancies amongst the 800 staff. Rather there is a good chance the business will be sold as a going concern. So far around 50 companies are said to have expressed an interest. But with business on the up at Covpress, could a deflated Chinese tyre business be behind the news?
Following VMI’s statement saying it had won the latest round of legal wrangling related to a patent dispute with Safe-Run, the Chinese firm, which describes itself as “one of VMI’s biggest competitors in China” put out a counter statement questioning VMI’s perspective.
When Goodyear Tire & Rubber announced plans last month to close its Philippsburg tyre plant in Germany, the company gave increasing demand for larger rim diameter tyre sizes – and a lack of infrastructure for producing these in Philippsburg – as a justification for the decision. Rather than invest in new equipment for the factory, Goodyear has decided to increase capacity for larger tyre sizes elsewhere in the world. Today, the tyre maker announced it has broken ground on a US$485 million expansion of its facility in China’s Pulandian district. Goodyear chairman, chief executive officer and president Richard J. Kramer took part in a ceremony with Lu Lin, deputy mayor of the city of Dalian.
Netherlands-based leading tyre manufacturing machinery maker VMI reports that it has won its first patent invalidation case against Chinese firm Safe-Run. As part of ongoing legal action commenced by VMI against Safe-Run, VMI filed for invalidation of a number of Safe-Run patents. Recently, the Chinese Patent Review Board has ruled in this case and invalidated the first Safe-Run patent in its entirety as the patent “was based on prior art”.
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