Indonesia
Russia’s largest tyre manufacturer, Amtel, wants to take over Vredestein’s tyre unit. The Dutch manufacturer’s CEO, Rob Oudshoorn, confirmed with Tyres & Accessories that “detailed discussions” are well underway and an acquisition could take place in early 2005.
Nokian Tyres and Giti Tire (China) have signed an offtake agreement which will see Giti Tire manufacture passenger car tyres on Nokian’s behalf. Based in Shanghai, Giti Tire is one of the biggest producers in China and is part of the Indonesian Gajah Tunggal group.
In the first few years of the new millennium Goodyear made losses of around $2.2 billion (£1.2 billion), but now the management can breathe deeply for the first time in years because CEO, Bob Keegan and president Jon Rich seem to have made a turnaround in Goodyear’s North American home market. To download the whole article as a PDF file, click here.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd (SRI) is going to invest £25 million into the increase of production capacities in several of its factories.
According to a German online service, Sumitomo, the second biggest tyre manufacturer in Japan after Bridgestone, wants to respond to growing demand for their products. £15 million will be invested in SRI’s factory in Japan, the remaining £10 million will be allocated to factories in China and Indonesia. The tyre manufacturer says the production capacity will go up by 12 per cent although the time scale in which this will happen is not clear.
In Japan Sumitomo Rubber produces Dunlop brand tyres.
Malaysian news sources are reporting that Sime Darby Bhd’s tyre division, Continental Sime Tyre Sdn Bhd, is planning to increase its production.
Tim Chesney, the Managing Director of Romney International Limited, the exclusive distributors of GT Radial brand tyres in the UK and Ireland, would like to state unequivocally that the recent story about PT Gajah Tunggal Indonesia (GT) being acquired by Michelin, is untrue. This story first appeared earlier this month in the US based ‘Modern Tire Dealer’ magazine. It was subsequently reported on the Internet sites of other trade press. Tim Chesney says that this account is without foundation and it should be disregarded. The extent of the inaccuracy of the story is shown in the supposed facts given by Modern Tire Dealer magazine. They quoted Gajah Tunggal’s daily radial tyre production capacity as being just 12,000 pieces when the correct figure is around 25,000 pieces, says Tim Chesney. He goes on to say that the reality is Gajah Tunggal has embarked on a major and exciting expansion programme. This will see the introduction of many new sizes, series and tread patterns, including the all new GT Champiro BAX asymmetric series and the Champiro BXT.
According to Modern Tire Dealer, quoting Indonesian Newspapers, Michelin is negotiating with Singapore-based Garibaldi Venture Fund Ltd. to take over the tyre company. Garibaldi recently bought the 78 per cent share in Gajah Tunggal released by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency. Gajah Tunggal is expecting sales figures for 2003 to increase by 17 per cent, with a target of a 20 per cent increase for 2004. The company’s outstanding debts totalled 550 million US dollars in 2003, and are planned to be repaid over the next six years. Gajah Tunggal is by far the largest Indonesian tyre producer with two factories in Indonesia.
Bekaert has officially inaugurated its first steel cord plant Bekaert Industries Pvt Ltd in Pune (India).
Reduced supply and increased demand – notably from Chinese companies – have pushed Indonesian rubber prices to a record high. Bad weather has restricted the amount of rubber tapped in Indonesia and other producing countries such as Thailand. Tyre grade rubber price is around 66.75 cents/lb, compared with last December, when the price was at a low of 39 cents/lb. A trader said that most deals tended to be for small quantities and short delivery. There has also been increased demand from Bridgestone and Goodyear.
In the past we have often commented on the similarities between the battery and tyre markets, notably in the problems faced by both and their reactions to these. One such appears to be a sharp increase in the number of batteries entering the market from the Far East. It is true that many manufacturers in the tyre industry have moved their production to low-cost countries and they are not alone – witness the recent spate of press reports revealing that more and more call centres are deserting the UK and relocating to India – so why should this not be the case for batteries? After all, if all markets are faced with the same economic realities, then is it surprising that their responses are similar? Undoubtedly, there is an element of this in the figures, but no doubt some of the increase is due to products being made by companies originally based in Asia and sold aggressively on the European market. Battery imports from Asia to the EU rose last year by five per cent, to 7.3 million units. Not far behind were imports from Eastern Europe, which were up by four per cent. Most dramatic was the performance of China, which is now Europe’s main Asian importer, with 2.4 million batteries sold in the EU last year; an increase of 38 per cent over the previous year. But it is not only China, as batteries are coming into the EU from South Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan. In the UK aftermarket, Asian battery imports now account for over 50 per cent of all UK imports.
What of the major vehicle markets? We kick off with what has been happening in the automotive world in the first three months. Additional figures are now available from the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) for tyre production in the main markets for 2002 for car tyres and for commercial vehicle tyres.
Toyota is to invest $180 million to upgrade its Indonesian factories after signing a deal with Indonesia’s leading vehicle manufacturer, Astra, to acquire control of the factories. The new company will be called Toyota Astra Motor (TAM) and Toyota will have a 95 per cent stake. Toyota plans to make 70,000 pick-up trucks and MPVs annually in Indonesia from next year, 10,000 of which will be exported.
Speaking in Malaysia, on recent news that Thailand may not cut rubber supply by four per cent as previously agreed by the three key producers, Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said “I hope that is a misquote. However, should it be true, there was an urgency to have a discussion with Indonesia and Thailand. After all, being the biggest producer, Thailand is benefiting more with the present high level of prices.” The three countries, which account for about 60% of world rubber production, agreed in Bali in 2001 to cut exports and output by 10% and 4%, respectively, aiming to support rubber prices.
Bridgestone Corporation has announced that it and its subsidiaries will expand their collective production capacity worldwide. It also announced that the Bridgestone Group will realign the geographical distribution of production capacity for different kinds of products. Bridgestone and its subsidiaries will invest approximately 250 million dollars in the production expansion and realignment, according to the announcement. The moves are measures to cope with the shift toward larger sizes of passenger car tyres in the industrialised nations and the growing demand for commodity-grade tyres in the newly industrialising economies of Asia and elsewhere.
Nokian Tyres has released its figures for the second quarter. Looking at the figures for the first six months, both turnover and operating profit were up on 1H 2001. Turnover rose 12.6 per cent to 193.3 million Euros (1H 2001 171.6 m Euros) and operating profit was 8.7 m Euros (6.7 m). Net profit was 1 m Euros (-0.8 m Euros). The good figures were the result of price increases, improved product mix and lower material costs. Most product groups showed increased sales, with the exception of retreading materials, and the Vianor retail chain lost 2.5 m Euros.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
