India
On March 24 Bekaert held an opening ceremony for its new technical centre in India. Located near Pune in the state of Maharashtra, the centre is intended to provide the company’s customers in India with enhanced technical services in the form of product quality testing, technical assessments and related dedicated assistance.
Apollo Tyres has opened its 150th sales and marketing office in Tirunelveli, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is also Apollo Tyres’ 10th sales and marketing office in Tamil Nadu. The 149th office was in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh and the 148th in Begusarai, Bihar, opened in February and January this year. Since March 2009 Apollo Tyres has added 15 sales and distribution points to its network in India, something the company points to as being in keeping with the company’s “mantra” of being close to the customer.
India’s major tyre manufacturers have seen their shares jump up to 4.9 per cent in value today amidst reports of price hikes across the four biggest domestic names. Bloomberg UTV reports that Apollo Tyres (up 4.9 per cent), CEAT (2.54), JK Tyre (2.32) and MRF (1.61) all saw their stock rise in value, following reports that CEAT is raising its prices by between two and five per cent, while Apollo and JK Tyre are to make a decision later on the size of their price increases.
It is now about a year and a half since the wider economic downturn began to have an effect on the automotive and tyre industries, and companies have had ample time to consider their responses. Upon the release of Michelin’s 2009 financial report in March, managing partner Michel Rollier spoke on the measures taken by the French manufacturer to counter the global crisis.
An estimate given by Sumitomo Rubber Industries suggests that sales of tyres in China will increase at three times the global rate. Bloomberg reports company president Tetsuji Mino as saying sales will increase about ten per cent per annum from just under 150 million tyres in 2009, compared with a global growth of three per cent. “We are sure that China is the most promising market,” Mino said. “Car ownership is spreading from wealthy people to ordinary consumers.”
Apollo Tyres launched its Safe Drive campaign in the capital city of Tehran recently. The initiative seeks to improve safety by educating drivers and owners on various aspects of tyre care and maintenance – including inflation pressure and tread-wear checks. Members of Apollo’s International Sales team, along with Apollo’s business partners conducted tyre checks at petrol pumps on major highways for two days. The company hopes that this contact with ordinary customers will ensure safer driving on the highways, during the Iranian New Year celebrations, when families enjoy undertaking road trips.
Apollo Tyres’ products have been available in Iran for the last few years. To fulfill growing customer requirements, Apollo is planning to introduce its truck-bus radial range in Iran later this year. However, the company exports primarily truck and bus cross ply tyres and passenger car radial tyres to Iran from India. The acceptance of Apollo products is clear in the "manifold growth" the company has witnessed in its sales of both passenger and truck-bus tyres in the last three years.
Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone director of Motorsport Tyre Development, was satisfied that the company’s Formula One Potenza tyres were meeting the required standard after the second practice session was dominated by quick times from Mercedes GP and McLaren drivers, most notably Nico Rosberg. The expected searing heat of Bahrain presented a significant challenge to the tyre supplier, being “the first time that teams have run in hot weather with the 2010 Bridgestone Potenza tyres,” according to Hamashima. Rosberg’s achievement was particularly startling, given that his fastest lap approached half a second faster than former champions Lewis Hamilton and teammate Michael Schumacher, who also showed impressive speed. Defending champion Jenson Button was fourth fastest.
The Brazilian tyre market is one of the world’s largest and due to its growth has been counted amongst the most important emerging markets, the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), for a number of years now. For the last five years German manufacturer Continental has produced tyres in Brazil and during this time – despite long-established and powerful competition – has built up a solid business there. While Continental sees itself as well positioned in Brazil’s replacement tyre market and already holds a four to eight per cent market share, when Tyres & Accessories visited Continental’s tyre factory in Camaçari, Brazil, we learned that the company now intends to further establish its deliveries to OEM customers.
Tyre production in India increased 16 per cent during the first ten months of the current financial year, the Hindu Business Line reports. Quoting figures released by the national Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), the financial daily said 79.2 million tyres were produced during the period, up from 68.4 million during the April to January period of the previous financial year. In the truck and bus segments, a growth of 14 per cent occurred in the period between April and January, up to a total of 12.25 million units. Passenger car tyre production increased 17 per cent during the period, to 16.3 million units, while production in the scooter and three-wheeler tyre segment grew 18 per cent to 10.7 million units. Information about the remaining 40 million tyres said to have been produced was not given.
Some 18 million truck and bus tyres are said to be retreaded in North America each year and a further nine million in South America, and to meet growing demand for the raw materials used in retreading both within the region and worldwide, Lanxess’s Performance Butadiene Rubbers (PBR) business unit is “considering the possibility” of manufacturing ESBR-BMB (emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber black masterbatch) in Brazil in the future. Options for doing so at its Triunfo or Caxias production sites are currently being examined.
In association with ‘CV’, a commercial vehicle themed magazine for the Indian market, Apollo Tyres has held the first dedicated awards for the commercial vehicle segment in India – the Apollo-CV Awards 2010. The awards ceremony took place on March 8, and a total of 23 awards were conferred upon vehicle and ancillary component manufacturers. The evening saw Tata Motors walk away with the two most significant awards – CV Maker of the Year and CV of the Year, honours bestowed upon the vehicle manufacturer for its Tata Prime 4028 S. The title of CV Man of the Year was conferred on Dr Abhay Firodia, chairman and managing director of Force Motors Limited.
India’s Metro Tyres is reportedly increasing its annual motorcycle tyre production capacity to 1.8 million units. According to the Press Trust of India, the company will invest Rs 500 million (₤7.2 million) in its Ludhiana, Punjab state plant, where capacity for tyres manufactured as part of a technical collaboration with Continental AG is currently 600,000 tyres per year. Expansion work is anticipated to be completed by April.
India’s Apollo Tyre has apparently dropped plans to build a new tire plant in Europe, and will instead turn its attention to expanding its Vredestein facility in the Netherlands, reports Tire Review.
You may not have heard of him before, but tyre maker JK Tyre is backing Aditya Patel as a driving “prodigy and India’s most promising driver.” JK Tyre’s comments come in advance of the forthcoming VW Scirocco Cup that starts in April 2010 in Germany. 21-year old Aditya will also be the first Indian to drive a Green Racing car as the Scirocco runs on ERD Bio gas, something which is said to be global first.
JK Tyre, which has been supporting Aditya in his professional training and participation in various national and International motorsport events, is also one of his lead sponsors in this endeavor. The Scirocco Cup will be held as the partner series of the hugely popular DTM in its 2010 debut season. Staged as the most eco-friendly one-make championship in the world, the sporting equipment: the racing version of the Scirocco is powered by an innovative biogas engine that achieves an 80-per cent reduction of CO2 emissions compared with conventional engines.
During the previous three years Alliance Tire has invested US$300 million in the company’s further development. This sizeable sum has been directed into several key projects. The highest profile of these, of course, has been last December’s acquisition of certain GPX assets, including the Galaxy and Primex OTR tyre brands. A specific focus has also been placed upon Alliance’s principal market of Europe: In December Alliance Tire Europe BV’s new headquarters was opened, and several weeks later Alliance Tire announced the appointment of a new president for the operation, former head of Goodyear industrial, farm and OTR tyre initiatives for the Middle East and Africa region, Manuel Pintado. Recently Tyres & Accessories paid Alliance Tire’s new European headquarters in Halsteren, the Netherlands a visit to hear Mr. Pintado’s views on Alliance’s recent activities and where the company plans to go from here.
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