India
Ceat Ltd says it has “aggressive growth plans” for its Indian retail network, and as part of this the tyre maker opened its first outlet in the country’s largest city yesterday. The first Ceat Shoppe to enter operation in Mumbai was officially inaugurated by controversial politician Abu Azmi, Maharashtra Samajwadi Party state president, along with Ceat executive director Arnab Banerjee.
At Reifen 2012, the Alliance Tire Group presented a new off-road tyre it says represents an innovative approach to dual-tyre configuration for excavators. Called the 528 Dual Master, the new product solves the problem of stones becoming embedded between double tyres. It does this through the use of a unique sidewall construction that enables close contact between the two tyres. “There is normally a rubber spacer between the tyres, but stones nevertheless get between the tyres and cause punctures,” explained ATG marketing communications manager Tal Rappoport to Tyres & Accessories. “The 528 Dual Master is the first tyre model for excavators that doesn’t require this spacer, and stones therefore can’t get penetrate this space.
Indian manufacturer Metro Tyres aims to significantly increase its share of India’s motorcycle tyre market and is considering entering the passenger car tyre segment after 2015. Managing director Rummy Chhabra disclosed this information to news agency the Press Trust of India while outlining the company’s investment plan for the next few years. PTI has not given any specific information on Metro’s intended activities within the passenger car tyre business, such as the extent, if at all, technology partner Continental will be involved.
Formula One moves on from street circuit season to return to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on 6-8 July. During Friday’s free practice, the teams will be able to test a new development hard P Zero compound, the first new compound to be tried during a race weekend in 2012. Teams will have two sets of the experimental hard tyre in addition to their usual allocation, before reverting to the standard P Zero Silver hard compound and P Zero Yellow soft compound for the rest of the race weekend. The Cinturato Green intermediate and Cinturato Blue wet will almost certainly be used at some point during the weekend as Britain’s wet summer continues – indeed Pirelli has never experienced a completely dry race at Silverstone. The tyre supplier says the meeting can be considered a second home race, since its motorsport hub – a centre of excellence – is located in Didcot, Oxfordshire around an hour away.
India-based Speedways Rubber Company decided to enter the radial agricultural tyre segment with the addition of new manufacturing equipment a couple of years ago. The upgraded part of the production operation is now said to be running smoothly ahead of reaching full capacity in the first quarter of 2013. With new manufacturing equipment, increased output and larger products in hand, company representatives are now further developing their plans for where to sell these tyres. And the business’ recent appearance at Reifen 2012 in Essen demonstrates the firm’s clear international perspective.
India’s tyre industry may be in for a lacklustre few months, reports The Economic Times. According to the financial daily, Indian tyre industry organisation the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association expects orders from original equipment customers to be lower until about October. Association director general Rajiv Budhraja said the ATMA is “concerned about the falling orders from different manufacturers.” In May 2012, car sales grew a modest 2.78 per cent and truck and bus sales dropped 11 per cent. “The weak consumer sentiment in the market has further impacted prospects with some significant drop in demand from the replacement market," Budhraja added.
Two years ago, at Reifen 2010, Starco marketing manager Brian Lorentzen told Tyres & Accessories off the record that the company was in the process of developing plans involving the agricultural sector. At this year’s show the news was finally made public as Starco announced its entry into the tractor radial tyre market. The Danish company describes this agricultural debut, which centres on a new distribution agreement with the tyre manufacturer ATG (Alliance Tire Group), as “a move that breaks with the past and indicates the shape of things to come.” Under the agreement, Starco will now distribute ATG’s Galaxy tractor tyre range in Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany and the Benelux countries.
Apollo Tyres has opened its first formal training centre for heavy and light commercial vehicle drivers. The centre is located in Ujjain city, a location within India the tyre maker describes as a busy transportation hub, and is being run in partnership with the non-profit organisation B-ABLE. Apollo says the centre will focus on two key areas: educating those wishing to make a career in the segment on all aspects of road and vehicle safety and maintenance, and promoting a holistic approach to health and wellbeing.
Nothing makes a statement like sliding through a tyre. This was perhaps the logic employed by two men protesting against garbage problems in the Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram. The Hindu newspaper reports that the two-middle aged men ended up spending an “agonising hour” trapped inside a tyre after their “ill-conceived” acrobatic street demonstration went awry. What the pair attempted, it must be said, should not be tried at home.
The Jakarta Globe reports that Multistrada Arah Sarana intends to diversify into industrial real estate. The tyre maker is believed to be making this move in response to alleged Indonesian government plans requiring all manufacturers to relocate to industrial estates before December 2012. Company president Pieter Tanuri said the new subsidiary will be called Kawasan Industri Multistrada and will build an industrial estate on 210 hectares of land near Jakarta. While Tanuri has not disclosed the level of investment Multistrada is making in the project, the company president said he expects construction to be complete by December 2014.
Using a two-stop strategy to prevail from a low-key qualifying performance, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso became the first driver to win two races in the 2012 season in Valencia at the European Grand Prix. Alonso took the lead in the championship thanks to an emotional home victory having qualified 11th on the grid. Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented, “Fernando did an incredible job to win from 11th place.” Sailing serenely ahead of the jostling pack in the first half of the race, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel looked likely to make good on his greater speed, and led by 20 seconds after qualifying on pole. However a safety car period and a pit stop to change to medium compound tyres later and the German was forced to retire with a technical problem. Alonso completed two short stints on the P Zero Yellow soft tyre and a longer stint of 29 laps on the P Zero White medium.
During the recent Reifen 2012 show in Essen Maxxis shared details of how the company is preparing for the rolling out of tyre labelling in Europe, including the launch of its own label finder software.
Alongside the agricultural and off-road tyres it is well known for in Europe, at Reifen 2012 Indian manufacturer Ceat showed off its passenger car tyre range – a line-up it intends to bring to Europe in the very near future. “At Reifen we are firstly promoting our truck and bus radial and passenger car tyre lines,” Trilok C Goel, Ceat’s executive director of specialty tyres and business development, commented to Tyres & Accessories. “We are already quite strong in agri in Europe.”
Earlier this month, Goodyear Tire & Rubber announced it now holds 100 per cent ownership of its Nippon Giant Tire (NGT) subsidiary in Tatsuno, Japan. The tyre maker has been the majority shareholder in NGT since 1985 and purchased the shares owned by its joint venture partners, Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corporation, for an undisclosed amount. Goodyear now plans to invest US$250 million to upgrade and expand NGT’s tyre manufacturing facility in order to increase its global supply of OTR tyres for key customers.
According to Taiwan’s national news agency, local tyre maker Cheng Shin Rubber has voiced interest in establishing a factory in India. The Central News Agency reported Cheng Shin president Chen Yun-hwa as saying demand from emerging economies, including India, remains strong despite escalating debt problems in the eurozone, and therefore the company may set up a plant in order to tap into the fast-growing Indian market.
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