The tyre business along with the rest of the automotive industry was hit hard by the effects of coronavirus. This tag brings you the latest news as it happens.
Effective Tuesday 28 April 2020, Brembo has reopened its Curno, Mapello and Sellero (Italy) Italian brake manufacturing operations, product at which was temporarily suspended on 16 March 2020 due to the emergency Covid-19 situation.
Things are changing so quickly at the moment that most analyses end up little more than speculation two weeks later. That’s why Tyrepress contains both the latest news and seeks to set such developments into their medium- and long-term contexts. Take our Tyre Retail coverage for example (see “2020 UK tyre retail ranking” and “Which garages are open during lockdown“) where we list both the current proportions of open tyre retailers and analyse the overall UK tyre retail landscape in its seven-year context.
The Independent Garage Association (IGA) has requested an enhancement to the furlough scheme. It wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, to request an alteration to the current scheme enabling employees to return to work partially as the country prepares for the next phase of lockdown restrictions.
Yokohama Europe reports it has been able to maintain its OTR business at a similar level to previously even under the tough conditions resulting from COVID-19. Truck and bus tyre sales were 27 per cent down during the same period, with Italy particularly affected.
With the approval of local authorities, BKT has restarted tyre production, albeit still on a partial basis, in all its plants in India. The off-highway tyre specialist has also resumed supply and delivery to both the OEM and aftermarket channels.
Nokian Tyres reports that the shutdown which began on 27 March in response to COVID-19 ended on Monday 27 April with the reopening of its factory in the USA. Some plant employees have returned to work for the start of a phased reopening process. The company’s factory in Russia resumed production on 6 April.
Chinese celebrations of Lunar New Year (25 January) were muted this year by the emerging coronavirus crisis, with the huge amount of personal travel associated with the holiday period down around 45 per cent. Yet global business’s reliance on China’s manufacturing meant that large orders were, as usual, preplanned to take into account the two to three weeks of manufacturing slowdown at this time of year. In the UK tyre sector, the result is that a large number of tyres that will likely exceed some distributors’ warehousing capacity are now arriving at UK ports. Freight forwarder, Maritime Cargo Services is offering one solution to companies experiencing this problem.
Volkswagen’s (VW) main Wolfsburg plant in Germany has restarted vehicle production after a period of shutdown due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. David Leggett, automotive analyst at GlobalData, said the move is a “welcome sign of a corner being turned in Germany,” but that the low level of production is indicative of the difficulties facing the sector in emerging from shutdowns.
The phased approach that Goodyear is taking to restart its tyre production in the EMEA region continues. The company has already announced that truck tyre production is up and running again at some sites in Europe, with tyre making partially recommencing in plants in Colmar-Berg (Luxembourg), Wittlich (Germany), Kranj (Slovenia), Debica (Poland) and Izmit (Turkey) over the last two weeks. The next plants to return to production are Goodyear’s Hanau, Fulda, Fürstenwalde and Riesa plants in Germany and in Amiens, France – all five will begin working this week.
Italian automotive suppliers are at risk if measures that have shut down the supply chain aren’t lifted next week, Brembo chairman Alberto Bombassei has said.
Production at Apollo Tyres’ factory in Hungary will partially recommence tomorrow, a month after the tyre maker scaled back production there and in its Enschede plant in the Netherlands in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is set to open its manufacturing plants in the United States and Serbia next week (the week commencing Monday 27 April). The facilities have been temporarily closed for approximately five weeks due to coronavirus and its impacts. The company’s plant in Melksham, UK remains temporarily closed. And Cooper’s Mexico plant is to close temporarily.
Exhaust supplier Klarius is continuing to supply garages with exhausts, catalytic converters, diesel particulate filters and mountings. The company said it is supporting the aftermarket supply chain to ensure that critical vehicle repairs can still be carried out when needed, helping members of the public and key workers alike to stay mobile for essential journeys during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Following the news that leading pneumatics supplier PCL has appointed Aland Findlow as its new national sales manager, the company has also revealed plans for it to recommence production in Sheffield.
The shutdowns and deteriorating demand in the automotive sector have caused GlobalData to revise its North American and European light vehicle (LV) production forecasts for 2020 and beyond. This is a stark illustration of how serious the COVID-19 crisis, which has caused sales to whither and shuttered manufacturing plants, is becoming for the automotive industry, says data and analytics company, GlobalData.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
Brembo
energepic.com; Pexels
Chris McAndrew
Yokohama Europe
BKT
Nokian Tyres
Pexels
Goodyear Dunlop
Assero Gear via Flickr; CC BY-ND 2.0
Klarius