Indonesia
New York-Based Eurotire Inc. has commenced operations at its new office in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. According to the company Balikpapan was selected by Eurotire for PT Eurotire Indonesia because of its strategic position in Indonesia’s central mining region. In addition to being Eurotire’s primary business office for Indonesia, this location also serves as Eurotire’s OTR tyre services and support centre for its local mining customers.
Revenues at Indonesian tyre maker PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk are expected to grow by 20 per cent next year. An article recently printed by Bisnis Indonesia reports Gajah Tunggal director Catharina Widjaja as saying capacity will be expanded to meet growing demand; four-wheeler radial capacity will grow 5,000 units a day to 45,000, while motorcycle tyre capacity will be increased from 75,000 units a day to 90,000.
Since 2007 the world’s biggest tyre industry show, Reifen has had an annually-held Chinese twin event named Reifen China. 25-27 November, 2010 sees the fourth “Asian Essen Tyre Show” taking place at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in Pudong, Shanghai in a joint-organised event between the China United Rubber Corporation and Messe Essen, the latter coming off the back of another successful Reifen expo in Germany back in June (see Tyres & Accessories, July 2010). As always, Reifen China will be held in parallel with the latest Rubber Tech event and cover manufacturers, distributors, repair shops, recycling, waste disposal and retreading in relation to the Chinese and wider Asian market. A programme of technical seminars will run concurrently, with past subjects including tyre proving and testing, retreading trends and tariffs imposed on exported Chinese products.
The amount Hankook Tire invests in Indonesia could be as much as US$1.2 billion. Gita Wirjawan, chairman of the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board, has been quoted by Indonesian media as saying Hankook has “informed us that they will likely choose Indonesia.” According to the Jakarta based newspaper Bisnis Indonesia, work on the 15 million tyres per annum capacity plant will begin at the end of the year.
Over the last few years the Rösler Group has focused intensely upon marketing its licensed Schelkmann retreading system internationally. Currently the sixth facility to utilise the system is being set up in the east Canadian province of New Brunswick. As company managing director Martin Rösler explained to Tyres & Accessories, construction work in Canada is progressing rapidly. Truck tyre retreader Pneu ABC Tires Inc. will commence the precure retreading of OTR tyres there by the middle of next year, with the bulk of output being delivered to Swiss mining company Xstrata, who extensively quarries resources in eastern Canada and is an existing ABC Pneu Tires customer. The project is being implemented through a 2.5 to three million euro investment.
Financial news sources reporting on the rising wage demands of China are suggesting that South Korean companies, including tyre-maker Hankook, are gravitating towards Indonesia on the back of increasing stability in the country. Kang Chang-hwan, the company’s Finance and Management executive vice president in South Korea, told reporters “We are now looking to get the necessary regulatory approval from the Indonesian authorities to go ahead with the plant though the site has yet to be decided,” following a meeting with investors after Hankook published its second quarter financial results.
Indonesia’s largest tyre manufacturer, PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk, has reported a 188 per cent increase in net profit during the first half of the current financial year. During the six months to June 30, 2010, the company attained profits of Rp 415 billion (£29.3 million) on the back of revenues equalling Rp 4.8 trillion (£339.8 million), a 27 per cent year-on-year increase. Operating profit jumped 176 per cent to Rp668 billion (£47.3 million) due to a decrease in operating expenses.
Bridgestone Corp. is partnering with the World Agroforestry Centre in a program to help small rubber tree growers Indonesia. The partnership will provide growers with information and guidance on best practices in the cultivation of rubber trees. The parties will also conduct joint research intended to help stabilize the region's agricultural rubber industry into the future.
Germany is not just Europe’s largest single tyre market – sales of wheel balancing weights there account for a large proportion of the region’s total sales of this product, so a German market presence is naturally a very good thing indeed. Therefore it has understandably concerned UK manufacturer Trax JH Ltd that it has been unable to sell zinc weights into Germany since European directive 2000/53/EC came into effect on July 1, 2005. All this is set to change, however. Trax is tooling up to begin volume production of an innovative new steel wheel weight, and the company’s sights are firmly set on the German market.
According statistics released by China’s Natural Rubber Association, the total area of rubber plantation land in the People’s Republic amounts to 1463 mu (98 hectares) up 65 mu (4.35 hectares) in 2009.
PT Cabot Indonesia is investing US$10 million to increase the capacity of its plant in Merak, Banten, by 20 per cent. According to Dave Miller, executive vice president and general manager of Core Segment at Cabot, the expansion should be completed by the middle of next year and give the plant an annual capacity of 160,000 tons – a quantity needed should the plant continue to meet growing demand from the Indonesian tyre industry. Miller believes carbon black demand in Indonesia will reach 200,000 tons next year.
Michelin managing partner, Michel Rollier, has spoken of the French tyre manufacturer’s plans to invest $2 billion in increasing its capacity in emerging markets between now and 2012. French newspaper Les Echos quoted Rollier as saying "our problem is that the growth of our capacity is insufficient compared with demand" at this year’s Michelin Challenge Bibendum event in Rio de Janeiro. “We cannot equip a manufacturer in North America and tell him we're not able to do it in South America," he reportedly explained.
Michel Rollier’s comments follow suggestions from some sources that Michelin is lagging behind its main competitors when it comes to its presence in the emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). However, in the future BRIC countries are expected to have “an increasing share in the sales revenues of Michelin tyres,” managing partner Jean-Dominque Senard said.
For the past forty years the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has served as an organisation acting in the interests of governments of natural rubber producing nations. As of 30 November 2009 the organisation contained ten members – the governments of Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam – and (according to 2008 figures) represented the producers of 94 per cent of global natural rubber production. The organisation has now grown to include the Republic of the Philippines.
Around 4.3 billion yen (₤31.3 million) is to be invested in Bridgestone’s Karawang factory in Indonesia. Company subsidiary P.T. Bridgestone Tire Indonesia will use this sum to expand passenger car and light tuck tyre radial capacity at the plant by 3,000 units a day to 29,400 units. This capacity level is anticipated to be reached by the first half of 2012.
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., has officially openened its new natural rubber processing factory in Surat Thani Province, southern Thailand. The opening ceremony was held on 6 May 2010. Among a total of 90 participants in the ceremony were Governor of Surat Thani Province, government officers, construction company executives, people representing joint investment partners Teck Bee Hang Co., Ltd., and VonBundit Co., Ltd., raw material suppliers, and Kinya Kawakami, board director and corporate officer of Yokohama Rubber.
In his greeting remarks, Kawakami said: "Yokohama Rubber imports natural rubber from Thailand and Indonesia and Teck Bee Hang is one of the largest Thai suppliers for us. However, Teck Bee Hang's natural rubber processing factory, which mainly supplies to Yokohama Rubber, has been considered less certain in terms of supply stability because of its insecure location near the Malaysian boarder area.
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