On 23 June Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić’s inauguration ceremony was held in Belgrade. Wang Feng, chairman and president of Linglong Tire, was invited to attend the inauguration ceremony in a move that suggests communications relating to Linglong’s proposed investment in a European tyre manufacturing plant are still open.
Kerr’s Tyres & Auto, a family-run business first established in 2002, has announced plans to invest in its current premises throughout the province with plans to open a further two additional centres over the next two years. This means investing up to £2 million in the business, creating at least 15 new jobs and a new training facility designed to help with upskilling fitters.
Cimcorp has received an order to supply logistics automation facilities to a brand-new tyre plant in Algeria. The factory is a new venture for the Algerian consumer electronics and household appliances group, Saterex. With huge growth in sales of products marketed under its leading ‘Iris’ brand, Saterex is diversifying into tyre manufacture. The new plant is being built in Setif, 300 km east of Algiers, and will be the first tyre factory in Algeria since Michelin Group closed its plant in the capital in 2013.
Demand for larger tyre sizes continues to increase, and Michelin intends to better equip its Dundee factory for their production through a project being implemented at a total cost of £16.5 million. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced yesterday that Michelin’s own investment will be supported by a £4.5 million Environmental Protection Grant from Scottish Enterprise.
Millbrook Group is to expand its Test World site in Finland, which will see it become Europe’s leading location for tyre testing. The project will increase the capacity for testing on natural snow and ice, and introduce wet and dry braking, aquaplaning and split friction surfaces. News of the expansion project was announced on 12 June.
On 15 May CAMCE signed a commercial contract with Tijan Petroleum Co. Ltd. to build a new tyre plant in Morocco. According to local news reports, CAMCE vice president Hu Wei signed the contract with Tijan vice president Ibrahim Khayat witnessed by chairman Luo Yan of CAMCE and executive vice president Ahmed Khayat of Tijan.
Evonik and Wacker Chemie are among the investors in a $335 million fund intended to finance young start-up firms in Germany, both companies announced. The country’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the German state-run KfW Development Bank are the main investors in the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) III, which will also help the start-ups put their business concepts into practice.
Shandong province, China-based Linglong Tires is considering a European factory. In the wake of media reports, Tyres & Accessories spoke with company representatives and learnt that a number of locations in both Eastern and Western Europe are being considered.
Nokian Tyres’ board of directors has authorized its management to sign a letter of intent with the respective authorities to build a new tyre manufacturing facility in America. The new greenfield factory will be located in Dayton (Rhea County), Tennessee, USA. It will concentrate on the production of passenger, SUV and light truck tyres that are sold exclusively or primarily in the North American market. The annual capacity of the factory will be 4 million tyres with an expansion potential in the future. About 400 people are expected to be employed.
During the Continental AG press conference at the Auto Shanghai show in China, chief executive officer Dr Elmar Degenhart confirmed that the company intends to continue investing in China “at a comparable level” to recent years. Continental has invested €1.3 billion in the country over the past half a decade. Degenhart also commented that Continental anticipates its sales will grow at a faster rate than the market in China, particularly in the field of mobility services.
Continental is to realise a substantial increase in production capacity at its tyre plant in Lousado, Portugal. The company’s Tire division intends to invest a total of some €150 million by the end of 2018. The aim is not only to further expand annual passenger car tyre production capacity from its current level of approximately 18 million units, but also to set up a production facility for agricultural tyres in Lousado. At present, production at the site mainly focuses on standard car van and light commercial vehicle tyres.
Continental AG set the 250 million euro ($271.58 million) expansion of its Hefei, Anhui province, China tyre production plant into operation on 28 March. Total investment in the Hefei plant is now said to be 570 million euros.
First ChemChina sent shockwaves through the tyre market by successfully purchasing Pirelli in 2015. This year another Chinese firm – this time tyremaker Qingdao Doublestar – made waves by offering an US$830 million bid for 42 per cent Kumho Tire in mid-March. The obvious question is what is the next tyre-related investment to come out of China?
Toyota Motor Europe will invest a further £240 million in its Toyota Manufacturing UK (TMUK) car plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire (UK). According to the company, Toyota’s investment will be spent on improving competitiveness and promoting UK supply chain efficiencies.
At the beginning of November Sailun Jinyu International (SJI) appointed Gareth Passmore as its president for Europe. He replaced Martin West, who has been appointed global president of the SJI Speciality Tire Group. Passmore, who started on 1 December 2016, is now responsible for all operations throughout Europe across all of the Sailun Jinyu Group brand portfolio – Sailun, Jinyu, Black Lion and Rovelo. Passmore brings with him over 25 years of tyre industry experience, including time with Continental, Apollo (in South Africa) and latterly with Sumitomo Rubber Industries where he headed up the Falken brand’s European export operations. During a recent brand and winter tyre product demonstration event in Sweden, Tyres & Accessories caught up with Passmore and at the same time we were introduced to Sailun’s ambitious goal of becoming a top 10 tyre manufacturer in the years to come.
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