Asahi Kasei has invested in Circularise B.V., a start-up company based in the Netherlands that provides digital product passports and mass balance bookkeeping software. Asahi Kasei made the investment valued at a total of 11 million euros together with Brightlands Venture Partners, 4impact capital and Neste in November 2022.
At the end of June, Nokian Tyres announced that it was executing a “controlled exit” from Russia. By August Russian news sources were reporting that Nokian was accepting “binding offers” for its Russian tyre plant up until the end of September. At the end of October, Nokian confirmed that it had agreed terms with Tatneft to sell its Russian tyre operations for roughly 400 million euros. More than a month later, Nokian Tyres spokespeople are speaking of “substantial uncertainties” relating to the Tatneft deal.
Bandvulc has invested in the installation of an Automated Build Cell (ABC) Robot at the Ivybridge plant. Head of Hot Retread Production at Bandvulc, Tony Mailling, explained how the upgrade has increased efficiency:
On 10 November, Cheng Shin Rubber Ind., Co., Ltd. announced that it is preparing to increase the capital of PT. Maxxis International Indonesia by US$30 million (about £25.53 million pounds; 29.01 million euros). Cheng Shin Rubber said that the capital increase meets the operation’s needs.
Pirelli marked the 10th anniversary of its Silao, Mexico factory with the announcement of 114 million euros of investment, envisaged in the 2021-2022 to 2025 industrial plan. The construction project is aimed at further increasing high-value production at the Mexican site and will take place during a two-year period, according to the company. As a result, the plant will see an increase in production capacity of over 1 million units, making a total of 8.5 million tyres a year by 2025 when fully operational, up from 7.2 million at the end of 2022.
Greenval Technologies has announced plans to invest 20 million euros in the construction of tyre pyrolysis/energy generation plant in Aspe, Spain. The facility is scheduled to start running in 2023 and will generate more than 100 jobs during construction plus 30 ongoing jobs at the facility. Aspe City Council is said to be already studying the proposal in light of the necessary licenses.
Nokian Tyres’ is investing around 650 million euros in a new passenger car tyre factory in Romania. The new greenfield factory will be located in Oradea in the North-West of Romania, near the Hungarian border. The annual capacity of the factory will be 6 million tyres, with expansion potential for the future. According to an official statement, the site will also house a distribution facility for storage and distribution of tyres. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2023 and the first tyres are estimated to be produced in the second half of 2024. Commercial tyre production is expected to start in early 2025.
The Financial Times is reporting that UK battery firm Britishvolt is close to collapse after £100 million of funding for its £3.8 billion electric vehicle battery gigafactory failed to materialise.
According to local media sources, both Bridgestone and Maxxis plan to ramp up their activities in India. Maxxis Group intends to invest a further US$100 million over the next five years to capture a 15 per cent stake in the two-wheeler tyre market, while Bridgestone Corporation is looking to increase its production capacity for car tyres by ten per cent next year to meet rising demand from both OEM and aftermarket customers.
Following the news that Goodyear is investing in converting its Montluçon into a two-wheel tyre production centre of excellence, company officials have confirmed that, subject to consultation with the relevant employee bodies, Goodyear expects the plans to be “substantially complete by the beginning of 2024”.
Following the news that it is consulting on the closure of the Cooper Melksham tyre factory, Goodyear has announced that it is set to invest 16.5 million euros into the “modernisation” of its Montluçon, France tyre production plant over the next 18 months. The news also marks the end of light truck tyre production at Montluçon. Prior to the announcement, the production of two-wheel tyres accounted for 50 per cent of the site’s activity and the site has also made motorsport tyres during its recent history.
On 14 October, Guizhou Tyre (also known as Advance Tyre) answered several questions from investors during an online T&A. Tyrepress has analysed the questions and presents a selection of Guizhou Tyre’s answers here.
On 11 October, a 59/80R63 radial engineering tyre rolled off the production line at Aeolus’s Jiaozuo manufacturing base. This giant OTR tyre has a diameter of over four metres and a weight of nearly six tons. It is mainly used for giant mining weighing about 400 tons.
June and July saw a spate of factory investment and opening announcements. First there’s the news that Linglong manufactured its first tyre at its brand-new Serbia tyre production plant at the end of June. Of course, this project has been underway for some time, but the fact that it got going just before the end of the first half of 2022 is noteworthy for two reasons. Firstly, notwithstanding the inhibiting effect of general market headwinds associated with pandemic fall-out and war in Ukraine, the project is basically on-schedule. And secondly, it demonstrates that no enthusiasm for Western and specifically European tyre production has been lost since the nullification of European import tariffs against Chinese-produced truck tyres roughly a month ago.
At the end of 2021, Sentury Tire announced that it is planning to build a half-a-billion-euro tyre factory in the Galicia region of Spain. 10 months down the line, is the Sentury Spain factory still going ahead as planned? The short answer is yes and the project is designed to be powered by wind energy. Tyres & Accessories spoke to Warren Rudman, general manager Sentury Tire (Spain) S.L. in order to find out more.
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Cheng Shin
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Michel Bossart; Pixabay
Christian Marx/Profil Verlag
Christian Marx/Profil Verlag
Online investor Q&A
Aeolus
Narcisa Aciko; Pexels