Enso aims to disrupt the market by combining sustainable, energy-efficient, high-mileage anti-particulate, electric vehicle-orientated tyres with a direct-to-customer, tyres-as-a-service business model. Following the news that an Enso tyre-equipped Renault Zoe set a new hypermiling record at least partly based on its tyres, Tyres & Accessories found out more about the company, its products and its financial position.
Earlier in the year, Sailun Group announced it was evaluating the feasibility of producing car tyres in Cambodia, but the plans its Board of Directors approved this month are for a larger and costlier plant than originally reported. Planned capacity has risen 80 per cent, and the proposed investment almost doubled.
Shandong Linglong Tire Co. Ltd is investing 6.066 billion yuan (£669.678 million; 779.348 million euros; US$949.830 million) in its latest tyre factory. Tyres & Accessories has confirmed that the roughly billion-dollar Tongchuan City factory project will put sustainability at the heart of its plans, which include largescale retread capacity.
The board of Shandong Linglong Tire Co., Ltd has agreed to build its sixth Chinese tyre factory in Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province. The construction site is located in Dongjiahe Circular Economy Industrial Park, Yaozhou District, Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province and will be home to large and modern factory manufacturing tyres for a wide range of business segments.
The board of Shandong Linglong Tire Company Ltd has revised its 10-year “medium and long-term development plan (2020-2030)” to focus on a 7+5 rather than a 6+6 tyre manufacturing capacity expansion model. Up till April 2020, Linglong has worked according to a 5+3 plan, but last year this was upgraded to 6+6, meaning the company plans to run six tyre factories in China as well as six situated in international locations. However, according a stock market filing dated 10 June 2021, Linglong’s board voted unanimously in favour of running a total of seven plants in China and five internationally.
At the end of March, Yokohama Rubber sold its headquarters building in central Tokyo. The company is now preparing to shift its headquarters functions to its Hiratsuka factory, which is located some 40 miles south of Tokyo, in Kanagawa Prefecture. It will gain 20.8 billion yen (£134.9 million) from the sale of the headquarters building – and will use the funds to fuel growth in key areas.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company commenced a private offering of US$1.45 billion aggregate principal amount of 8- and 10-year senior notes on 13 May 2021.
The first batch of radial truck tyres rolled off the production line at Guizhou Tire Co Ltd’s Vietnam plant on 1 April 2021, marking the completion of the first phase of the factory project. When Guizhou Tire’s Vietnam tyre factory, which was funded through a share issue in September last year, gets up to speed it will produce 1.2 million radial tyres a year.
Bridgestone Corporation is investing 10.2 billion yen (£68.0 million) in “cutting-edge equipment” for certain facilities at its Shimonoseki plant in Japan, the company’s flagship production base for tyres used in mining and construction applications. Installation of this equipment is scheduled to begin next year and be completed by the end of 2025.
Kumho Tire Co is planning to invest some 340 billion won (£217 million; 255 million euros; US$298 million) in expanding its tyre production facilities in Vietnam. The planned investment aimed at bracing for an increase in demand from North American markets and mitigating tariff-related price pressure, according to local news sources.
Vittoria, the bicycle tyre brand famous for using graphene in its compounds, has invested 10 million euros in quadrupling its Brembate (Bergamo, Northern Italy) premises from 10,000 to 40,000 square metres. The expansion project will see the company add a Cycling Innovation Centre and Bike Park.
Continental is further expanding its non-tyre activities through the acquisition of a minority stake in German-US start-up Recogni. The investment took place as part of the US$48.9 million Series B financing round announced by Recogni on 17 February. Both companies have agreed not to disclose the amount of the holding.
Tyre maker TVS Srichakra has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of India’s Tamil Nadu state in order to facilitate the investment to expand capacities at its plant in Madurai.
Bridgestone Corporation has invested in NEXT Logistics Japan, a company established by truck manufacturer Hino Motors in 2018 to explore new technologies and solutions for the logistics industry. The new investor will work together with NEXT Logistics Japan on a new long-distance transportation scheme that aims to reduce the number of drivers required for road haulage.
Goodyear has invested in a further autonomous vehicle firm through its Goodyear Ventures venture capital fund. The latest business to join Goodyear Venture’s growing investment portfolio is TuSimple, a global autonomous trucking technology company that operates self-driving trucks out of its facilities in the USA, Europe, China and Japan.
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