Construction work has officially begun on Hankook Tire’s new factory in the United States following a groundbreaking ceremony held at the plant site in Clarksville, Tennessee on 9 October. The new facility, which is expected to begin operation in 2016 and will reach a production capacity of 12 million units, is Hankook’s eighth production facility worldwide and first in North America.
French manufacturer Michelin has won our global online tyre brand value rankings for the seventh consecutive year. However, while Michelin deserves credit for the unparalleled achievement. This year’s research also shows significant growth from Korean manufacturers/mid-range brands. Tyres & Accessories once again partnered with NetNames, a partnership that this year celebrates its 10th set of annual results and 10 years of assessing tyre brands’ online prominence and sentiment.
Hankook Tire’s Daejeon South Korea factory has suffered a fire, the company confirmed on 1 October. The fire is not expected to disrupt production since the damage is mostly to its warehouse. However a fifth of the warehouse has reportedly been lost along with some 180,000 tyres. According to local news reports, the warehouse held products destined for both domestic and overseas markets.
In addition to announcing significant original equipment deals, Hankook Tire is presenting several new commercial vehicles tyres at the IAA show in Germany – the drive axle DM09, the winter AW02 and the e-cube Blue TL20 trailer tyre.
In addition to supplying original equipment tyres to various MAN truck models, Hankook Tire has also secured original equipment approval for the vehicle said to be the best-selling distribution truck in the world, the Mercedes-Benz Atego.
Hankook has announced that it will be supplying Original Equipment (OE) tyres to leading truck manufacturer MAN in future. According to the Korean-based manufacturer, the deal includes various models of heavy-duty trucks. The deal begins in the first quarter 2015 and sees Hankook supply its e-cube MAX, SmartFlex and SmartWork tyres to MAN facilities in Germany, Austria and Poland.
It seems we have a new UK commercial vehicle tyre market leader – Hankook. As well as featuring “Industrial and Speciality tyres” from pages 58 to 69 of this September’s edition, this month we have also taken a detailed look at the development of UK truck tyre market. This meant speaking to high level contacts at various manufacturers, wholesalers and third-party analysts in order to produce an original analysis of the status quo. Our analysis was compared to a similar exercise Tyres & Accessories undertook in 2009 in order to give the overview some longer-term perspective. The results are published on pages 24 to 43 for your reading pleasure and engagement.
Earlier this week, with reference to this month’s focus on the UK commercial vehicle tyre market we discussed how on average year-to-date, UK annual demand is reportedly around 80,000 tyres a month, which equates to 960,000 tyres a year (based on ETRMA figures). In the pre-recessionary years it went much further than this, but there was some doubt that market will quickly (if ever) return to levels of 110,000 a month? And has it shifted so much that it is now a five horse race?
The recession had a disproportionately large impact on the haulage industry. With many firms going to the wall and others trimming their fleets right back and running their tyres to death, this all had a similarly big impact on the truck tyre business too. Back in 2009 Tyres & Accessories observed that the combination of shrunken demand and aggressive competition from up-and-coming manufacturers (namely Hankook at that time) really shook the market up. Five years later, comparing the market then and now reveals that this “shake-up” trajectory continues well into the new decade, with both Hankook and Giti occupying significant market share positions that simply were not feasibly early in the new millennium.
Later this month the IAA Commercial Vehicles show will get underway in Germany, and Hankook Tire says one of its aims as an exhibitor will be to promote extremely fuel-efficient products; both world premieres Hankook plans for the show address the increasing demand for cost-effectiveness and efficiency, particularly in the freight forwarding business. Hankook will also focus on tyres for the original equipment segment and display its 3PMSF-labelled all-season and new winter tyres, along with new sizes for existing truck tyre ranges.
Hankook Tire reports it has formed a partnership with Applus+ IDIADA. As part of what it calls a strategic alliance, the tyre maker has built a new technical office in Spain and will carry out joint research for tyre testing and development. This 7,200 square metre test centre will be known as the “Spain Technical Office for European Technical Center”.
Yesterday the Federation of Chemical Workers of Hungary (VDSZ) held a demonstration against Hankook Tire Hungary Ltd. and what it views as the tyre maker’s harassment of union officials at its plant in Rácalmás. The VDSZ called upon other unions and workers to display solidarity by attending the protest.
Sales at Hankook Tire declined 11.2 per cent year-on-year to KRW 1,661.5 billion (£954.4 million) in the second quarter of 2014. The UHP tyre segment accounted for 30 per cent of the company’s consolidated sales in the quarter, noted the South Korean tyre maker. Operating profit decreased 7.4 per cent to KRW 251.2 billion (£144.3 million).
An all-new Mini entered the market this year, and it’s longer and wider than the previous model – 107 mm longer and 44 mm wider in hatchback form, to be precise. But not everything has changed; Hankook remains original equipment supplier for the Mini, and is providing four tyre lines for the new-generation car. All original equipment tyres for the Mini are produced at Hankook’s factory in Hungary.
Its tyres are already fitted on Mercedes-Benz S- and E-Class cars, and now Hankook Tire reports it has begun supplying Daimler AG original equipment tyres for the C-Class, including run-flat tyres. The midsize Mercedes receives both standard and HRS (Hankook Runflat System) versions of the Ventus S1 evo² in size 225/50 R17 W. This is the first time that Hankook has supplied run-flat tyres as original equipment.
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