Nexen Tire is establishing a dedicated winter tyre testing centre at UTAC proving ground in Ivalo, Finland. This facility will serve as a foundation for winter tyre performance testing and research and development. UTAC will oversee the construction of the centre, as well as its operation, which Nexen Tire expects to begin in full by December 2025.
Following last year’s establishment of CTS Group, and building on recent growth in Sweden and Northern Finland, CTS’ Finland company (Lapin Kumi) has opened two new tyre shops in the Helsinki region. The two new Helsinki centres are located in Vuosaari harbour and Espoo Juvanmalmi.
Nokian Tyres is leading a Finnish programme that will “confront the key challenges of future mobility” through various solutions such as the digitalisation of tyres and traffic, sustainable product lifecycle, and advanced manufacturing technologies. The five-year FutureProof project aims to ensure sustainable European mobility both on and off-road by bringing together actors from different sectors.
After almost two months of discussions, Nokian Tyres reports concluding “change negotiations” related to staff at its Vianor Oy retail and service business in Finland. The bottom line is that the company will terminate the employment contracts of 16 workers, less than half the maximum 40 job cuts mentioned when negotiations began on 26 November. Furthermore, the parties involved in negotiations have agreed to the temporary laying off, for a maximum of 90 days per person during 2025, of some 450 employees at Vianor service points, retreading factories and its OE assembly line.
Private equity group Axcel has become the new majority owner of Nordic Tyre Group in a move designed to “further strengthen the [tyre] company’s position in its core regions while expanding into new European markets”.
September has been a month of official openings. Specifically, Nokian Tyres opened its Romania tyre factory – something it has done in record time (see pages 14-16 for the details). And Linglong flipped the switch on passenger car tyre manufacturing at its Serbia plant too (see pages 18-19). At the same time, October’s magazine focuses on tyre wholesale (see page 44 onwards) and industrial tyres (from page 36). However, this column turns its attention to an arguably under-reported part of the European tyre market – the Nordic/Scandinavian tyre business.
The Nokian Tyres factory in Nokia, Finland, has achieved the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS. This certification allows the company to incorporate new sustainable, ISCC PLUS certified raw materials into its tyres.
Nokian Tyres is investing in a new production line for heavy tyre inner tubes at its factory in Nokia, Finland. The company expects that the first inner tubes made in Nokia will be ready in the first half of 2025. Production in Nokian replaces the manufacture of inner tubes in Lieksa, Finland, where production will end in stages during 2025.
The Finnish Lapin Kumi and Swedish Colmec tyre businesses are forming what they call “a new sustainable and customer centric tyre services group”. This step follows a similar move by fellow Swedish firms Centrala Gummi and Colmec earlier in the spring. The transaction is expected to close in the third quare 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.
Nokian Tyres’ Nokia factory in Finland continues its developmental journey, with ongoing enhancements in tyre production processes. Notably, last year witnessed a notable increase in productivity and efficiency alongside a reduction in waste. These strides reflect the factory’s commitment to continuous improvement principles, where incremental changes yield substantial impacts. Safety also remains a core focus area at the factory, with significant strides made over the years despite a slight dip in 2023.
Nokian Tyres has donated 200,000 euro to Aalto University School of Business in Finland. The donation will fund Nokian Tyres and Jukka Moisio scholarships for masters students going on exchange programs abroad. The funds will be donated in two equal instalments in 2024 and 2025. The donation marks president and CEO Jukka Moisio’s impending retirement from the board of directors of the Finnish tyre maker.
Cimcorp has added Anne Happonen to its executive leadership team, as part of her appointment vice president of operations. Happonen’s experience includes responsibilities with Cargotec, Sandvik, and Patria where she has had “a strong hold on global megaprojects and leading diverse teams”.
According to Russian petrochemical industry information centre Rupec, two European Union countries were amongst the top foreign recipients of Russian tyres in 2022-2023. Rupec reports that the main foreign markets for these products in monetary terms were Kazakhstan (19%), Finland (13%), Germany (11%) and Belarus (10%). The overall share of tyres in Russian exports for the period 2022-2023 was approximately two per cent.
Nokian Tyres is adjusting production at its Nokia passenger car tyre factory in Finland for “at least two weeks”. However, based on recent negotiations the production employees can be laid off due to financial and production related reasons for a maximum period of 90 days. The lay-offs result from “ongoing political strikes affecting ports and transportation in Finland”, according to the company. Nokian reports that that wider environment has led to “Nokian Tyres’ inventories of tyres filling up, as the company is unable to deliver tyres to its customers”.
It’s now little over a decade since Rutger Veerman told us of his plan to establish himself as a ‘matchmaker’ for tyre, wheel and battery companies. The idea was to serve as an intermediary between supply and demand, matching stocks in and outside Europe with customers seeking these products. Vimexa Automotive BV figuratively opened its doors for business in January 2014.
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