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.
The Pakistani tyre market is subject to widespread under-invoicing, which continues to lead to smuggling and illegal cross border trade. It’s nothing new, but local news sources are reporting that it is now happening at a “colossal” scale due to the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), citing data produced by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC).
EMG, the leading international B2B and industrial communication specialist, has been appointed by Trelleborg industrial tyres operations, to develop and manage its media relations programme in the EMEA.
The former head of Goodyear’s Asia Pacific business has joined Triangle Tyre Co. Ltd as its new chief executive officer. He began in this role in April 2015 and will work towards further globalising the tyre maker’s activities – indeed, Triangle Tyre states that the French national’s appointment to the role shows the company’s “confidence and determination” to globalise. Ding Yuhua will continue to serve as Triangle Tyre’s chairman of the board.
An announcement made by Dunlop Aircraft Tyres at the Paris Air Show today confirms the original equipment supply of its tyres to Chinese manufacturer AVIC Aircraft Xi’an Branch for fitment on a turboprop regional airliner that is currently being developed. Six Dunlop tyres (two for the nose wheels and four for the main wheels) will be fitted to each Modern Ark 700 (MA700) aircraft; AVIC Aircraft Xi’an Branch anticipates selling approximately MA700 units around the world.
A recently-released report suggests that demand for tyre and rubber industry machinery in China will surge in the coming few years. According to the ‘Global and China Rubber Machinery Industry Report, 2014-2017’, the market value will reach US$4.07 billion by 2017. This represents a 77.0 per cent increase on the 2013 figure of $2.3 billion, which itself was 36.5 per cent higher than a year earlier and 48.6 per cent of the global total (8.2 per cent more than in 2012).
Having made their debut at the 2013 event, China-based garage equipment manufacturer, Bright Technology returned for Autopromotec 2015 to showcase its all-new Bright Premium range of wheel balancers which has been completely re-branded for the European tyre and automotive market.
Global rice paddy production amounts to around 700 million tonnes each year, and some 20 per cent of this total paddy weight is made up of rice husk, which is separated in the rice milling process and has traditionally been discarded by burning (including to generate electricity) or by dumping in landfill. But in recent times new uses have been found for this former waste. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, for example, has tested silica derived from rice husk ash over the past two years. The tyre maker has now reached a supply agreement with China’s Yihai Food and Oil Industry for silica derived from rice husk ash, and will begin manufacturing a tyre containing this silica at its Pulandian factory in China this year. The tyre will be sold in the Chinese domestic market.
The motoring public, states Bridgestone, has “a low understanding of tyres and little affinity with them,” and in many cases consider a tyre to be a round and black commodity typically acquired as a distress purchase. This point of view is unlikely to change unless drivers are more regularly exposed to tyre-related information, and therefore Bridgestone is currently striving to influence the people that may possibly influence you.
In late April Continental concluded an investment agreement with the Hefei provincial and local governments in China, and has now unveiled plans to significantly expand its passenger car tyre factory there. Annual production capacity will rise from the current level of 5 million tyres per year to 14 million by 2019. In addition, bicycle tyre production in Hefei will be boosted from around 2 million units per annum to 13 million pieces by 2025.
David Shen has been appointed general manager of Dunlop Taikoo (Jinjiang) Aircraft Tyres. He joins the tyre distribution and retreading facility, which is based in China’s Fujian Province, from aircraft engineering company HAECO-Xiamen, where he served as senior manager of business improvement and lean development.
The Volkswagen Group continues to expand its production capacity in China. A further example is the new vehicle plant of Shanghai-Volkswagen (SVW) in Changsha, southern China, which was inaugurated this week by Prof. Dr. Jochem Heizmann, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft and President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China. This plant is the Group’s 119th global facility and its 20th in China.
On 4 May the Brazilian authorities passed a resolution calling for anti-dumping tariffs to be levied against Chinese-produced truck tyres with rims between 20 and 22.5 inches in diameter for the next five years.
German magazine Auto Bild Allrad has published a summer tyre test for compact SUVs. Ten size 235/55 R17H/V/W tyres were tested on a VW Tiguan, and what sets this test apart from others is that all candidates come from either the People’s Republic of China or Taiwan. While all tested tyres delivered performance below the Continental CrossContact UHP reference tyre, the Goodride SA-37 Sport, Infinity Enviro, Delinte Thunder D7, Sonar SX-9, Star Performer SUV-1 and Nankang NK Comfort NK 605 were all rated ‘satisfactory’.
The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China has upheld a patent infringement claim lodged by leading tyre machinery manufacturer VMI. Based on what VMI describes as “clear evidence of infringement” of a VMI tyre building drum patent by Shuangjun Plastic and Rubber Machinery Ltd., SIPO has ordered the company to stop manufacturing the product, offering it for sale and making false claims about its provenance.
By the end of next year, TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. intends to have opened three further plants in China. Two of these facilities will be located on the same site in Zhanghjiagang, Jiangsu province; the first, a factory dedicated to braking, will start operations at the end of the second quarter of 2015, while a November 2015 start is planned for the other, an occupant safety systems facility. The third plant is located in Xian and is also an occupant safety systems factory. It should be operational by the third quarter of 2016.
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