Bridgestone puts $300M price tag on relocated Shenyang plant
Further details of the new factory Bridgestone will build in China to replace its Shenyang plant have been announced, including the tripling of investment plans.
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.
Posts
You can keep the so-called workers – Titan’s Taylor replies to French offer
NewsHe stopped short of deploying the phrase “lunch eating laziness monkeys” – but perhaps only just. Titan International chairman and CEO Maurice Taylor has penned a letter to France’s industry minister Arnaud Montebourg, mocking the latter’s well meant but ultimately misguided request for Titan and Taylor to reconsider buying the agricultural business at Goodyear’s Amiens Nord plant. Taylor, a man known for his forthrightness, also took the opportunity to express his feelings towards the Amiens plant workforce.
Hankook aiming for 12-15% US market share
NewsAt Hankook Tire America’s annual ‘Partners Day’, the tyre maker gave an overview of its recent successes and shared it plans to build upon these accomplishments. US industry publication Tire Review was there and shares news of the event held in Cancun, Mexico.
Production starts at Hankook’s Chongqing plant
NewsAccording to a statement released by Hankook Tire, production has commenced at the company’s Liang Jiang Xin Qu factory in China’s Chongqing region. The tyre maker writes that the plant’s initial production capacity goal of 2,400 tyres a day is expected to be reached by mid-2013; upon breaking ground at the factory site in May 2011, Hankook said it aimed to produce 4,500 truck and bus radials and 30,000 passenger car radials a day in Chongqing by the end of 2015.
Bridgestone profits up 67%
NewsIt turns out that 2012 was a good year for Bridgestone Corporation. The Japanese tyre and rubber products manufacturer achieved a 66.8 per cent increase in net income during the period, taking in a healthy 171.6 billion yen (£1.18 billion). This jump in profit was achieved despite sales remaining relatively level; these increased 0.5 per cent to 3,039.7 billion yen (£20.94 billion). Operating income rose 49.5 per cent to 285.9 billion yen (£1.97 billion) and operating margin increased from 6.3 per cent to 9.4 per cent.
CMA/Double Coin joins RTA
NewsUS distributor of the Double Coin brand, the China Manufacturers Alliance, is one of the latest companies to join the Retread Tire Association. Reporting this new addition, RTA managing director Harvey Brodsky commented “We continue to be very pleased and gratified at the amount of support our exciting new association continues to receive from retreaders and others in the retread and tyre industries. Since our beginning in 2010, 298 members have joined our association and we are grateful to every one of them for their support in our ever growing association.”
Sumitomo net income up 24.9% in 2012
NewsFor the year ended 31 December 2012, Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. recorded net sales of 710.2 billion yen (£4.9 billion), a year-on-year increase of 4.9 per cent. Operating income, at 69.7 billion yen (£481.5 million), was up 29.3 per cent on the 2011 result, while ordinary income of 67.4 billion yen (£465.1 million) represented a 34.9 per cent rise. Net income for 2012 amounted to 35.5 billion yen (£237.9 million), a 24.9 per cent year-on-year increase.
Solvay to build a new silica plant in Poland
NewsSolvay is investing 75 million euros in building an 85,000 ton a year Highly Dispersible Silica (HDS) plant in Włocławek, Poland. Combined with further capacity expansion at its site in Qingdao (China), these two investments are designed to increase Solvay’s global highly dispersible silica production capacity by 30 per cent.
Pirelli reveals F1 P Zero tyres at first 4 GPs
NewsPirelli has announced the P Zero slick tyre compounds it will provide to Formula One for the first four grands prix of the 2013 World Championship season. The races will take place in Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain, over the course of which all four compounds will be used. In addition, no two grands prix will receive the same allocation variation, meaning that there will be a wide variety of tactical possibilities on show in the opening stages of the season. Such a move could help to retain the intrigue of the opening stages of the 2012 season, during which seven different drivers claimed victory in each of the first seven grands prix. Pirelli’s tyres have been overhauled this year too, and while the compounds are designed to offer fast warm-up performance through being generally softer, teams will be getting used to the way their cars handle the new rubber in the different conditions offered by these races.
Stable 2012 sales for Trelleborg Wheel Systems
NewsFull year results for Swedish firm Trelleborg AB show its Trelleborg Wheel Systems business unit generated net sales of SEK 3,865 million (£386.8 million) in 2012, a very slight increase on a year earlier. In the final quarter of 2012 sales came to SEK 833 million (£83.4 million), 13 per cent less than a year earlier. Reporting this fourth quarter result, the company says Q4 sales were lower year-on-year in all market segments, however they were in line with general market trends. Operating profit amounted to SEK 449 million (£44.9 million) last year, a 12 per cent increase the Swedish company attributes to enhanced efficiency and favourable capacity utilisation. Final quarter operating profit dropped 27.3 per cent per cent to SEK 72 million (£7.2 million), primarily due to lower sales.
Michelin grows sales, profits despite declining volumes
NewsMichelin’s 2012 financial results are now public, and in a pithy sentence the tyre maker describes its performance last year as “strong 2012 earnings in lacklustre markets.” During the year the company earned net sales of 21.474 billion euros, up three per cent on 2011, although Michelin says weak demand, particularly in Europe, dragged sales volumes down 6.4 per cent year-on-year. Western Europe and North America each accounted for 34 per cent of total net sales, with North America gaining three percentage points at Western Europe’s expense, while the rest of the world’s share of net sales remained unchanged from 2011 at 32 per cent.
Kumho to supply Chinese touring car series
NewsUnder a three-year agreement, Kumho Tire will act as sponsor and official tyre supplier to the China Touring Car Championship (CTCC). The championship, which gets underway for the 2013 season at the Zhuhai International Circuit on 12 May, is supported by the FIA and the FASC (Federation of Automobile Sports of the People's Republic of China) and features premium level touring car racers. Races attract more than 10,000 spectators and the state-run broadcaster Chinese Central Television holds exclusive rights to the series.
Green tyres a focus for Michelin’s new China factory
NewsMichelin expects its business to gain momentum in China in the coming years, propelled by a fast increase in vehicle sales. This was the word from Philippe Verneuil, president of Michelin China, upon the opening of the company’s $1.5 billion factory in Shenyang. The facility’s opening has been reported by the China Daily, which writes that the Shenyang plant, Michelin’s largest factory in the world, has an annual capacity of more than 12 million car, truck and bus tyres.
Bridgestone inaugurates Mid-East, Africa training centre
NewsBridgestone Corporation subsidiary Bridgestone Middle East & Africa FZE has opened a new multipurpose facility in Dubai. The centre, known as ‘Bridgestone Park’, is located in the Jebel Ali Free Zone and will be used for training company employees and distributors throughout the Middle East and Africa in the areas of sales and technical support for passenger, truck and bus tyres, along with training in the technical skills required in the manufacture of Bandag brand retreads. The 21,678 square metre facility also contains a passenger tyre retail shop that is intended to serve as a model for shops in the Middle East and Africa that handle passenger tyres and car maintenance, plus a truck and bus tyre service centre. At present 20 people are employed at Bridgestone Park.
Infinity, Westlake to exhibit at Motortec Automechanika Ibérica
NewsInfinity Tyres and Westlake Tyres will exhibit at Madrid’s aftermarket automotive parts, equipment and services trade show Motortec Automechanika Ibérica. Infinity’s range will be displayed in conjunction with its authorised distributors in the region, Euro Tyre, while Eskay Tyres – Westlake distributor in the UK and certain other European markets – will take a stand to show the Hangzhou Zhongce brand’s passenger and truck and bus ranges.
