The Hankook logo remains at the top of the SuperTaikyu official website, but the South Korean tyre manufacturer has backed away from supplying the Japanese endurance racing series after its production was hit by a serious fire at its Daejeon factory roughly six weeks ago.
With the changeover of three facilities this month, Bridgestone is powering all but one of its tyre and raw material plants in Japan with 100% renewable purchased electricity. The Kurume, Amagi and Saga sites are the latest where Bridgestone is sourcing renewable power. A total of ten plants in Japan now run on purchased renewable electricity, the earliest having changed to renewable sources in July 2021.
As a contribution to carbon neutrality in motorsport, Yokohama Rubber is now powering its motorsport tyre production line in Mishima, Japan with electricity from renewable sources. Furthermore, certain tyres produced on this line contain 33% sustainable materials.
Bridgestone has partnered the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) as the title partner for its sustainability focused competition. The tyre manufacturer has signed a multi-year support agreement for the Bridgestone FIA ecoRally Cup, which aims to address major environmental concerns and foster positive behaviour amongst competitors. The competition was created in 2006. It sees production, road-legal electric vehicles running without modification in regularity events.
Full-year 2022 financial results show that – in terms of share price performance, at least – Japanese tyre manufacturers are leading the way on the global stage. Much has happened in the last five years, but five-year share price data is clear that the costs of chip shortages, shipping, dearer raw materials, pandemic and war have hit European and Western tyre brands harder than their Japanese counterparts. We compared the share performance of five of the largest European and Western tyre brands (namely: Michelin, Goodyear, Continental, Pirelli and Nokian) during the last five years with the leading Japanese-based tyre manufacturers (Bridgestone, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Yokohama and Toyo Tires) in order to gain an insight into their relative performance.
Yokohama has announced plans to add 100,000 tyres-worth of production capacity to its existing factory in Ise City, Mie Prefecture, Japan.
The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. has reported record sales and earnings in its fiscal 2022 (January to December 2022) figures. Sales revenue increased 28.3 per cent over the previous year, to 860.5 billion yen (£5.338 billion; 6.009 billion euros; US$6.409 billion). Business profit increased 12.8 per cent to 70.1 billion yen (£434.864 million; 489.504 million euros; $522.164 million). Both sales and profit were record figures. However, due to profit from the sale of Yokohama Rubber’s headquarters building in the previous year and other factors operating profit was down 17.7 per cent to 68.9 billion yen.
Tyre-related business profit at Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) stood at 67.9 billion yen in 2016 and was still a respectable 41.4 billion yen in 2021, but last year dropped to 12.3 billion yen (£76.2 million). It’s therefore no surprise that SRI believes it has been investing too much capital in unprofitable businesses, and the company intends to change this.
Bridgestone’s Shimonoseki and Kitakyushu tyre plants in Japan are now equipped with solar power systems. With a combined generation capacity of 5.8 MW, these systems will supply electricity to produce tyres at the two sites. Bridgestone speaks of an annual CO2 reduction of around 2,700 tonnes.
A new facility for testing Yokohama winter tyres entered operation on 5 January. Yokohama Rubber opened the indoor ice circle facility at its Tire Test Center of Hokkaido to evaluate the turning performance of car, bus and truck winter tyres on icy surfaces, a characteristic it considers, after braking performance, the “second most important tyre performance on icy roads.”
The European passenger car and light truck tyre (PCLT) import market recovered substantially from its bout of Long Covid in the second half of 2022 as the benefits of local versus remote production took an unexpected hit. A perfect storm of significantly lower freight costs and high European energy costs nudged the dial on the relative competitiveness of imports and domestic PCLT tyre production in the second half of 2022. Looking at the European PCLT tyre market through the prism of imports, leading sector analyst Astutus Research shares with Tyres & Accessories its data demonstrating the effects of a rapidly changing market context. The latest Astutus Research briefing, ‘Supply Dynamics in the European PCLT Tire Industry to 2028’, priced at £995 is available now on Tyrepress.
For the 18th year in a row, The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has been included in the global stock index FTSE4Good Index Series, an achievement it says “reconfirms that the company’s ESG activities and disclosure practices meet the highest global standards.” The tyre, wheel and rubber products maker has also been selected to the FTSE Blossom Japan Index for the sixth straight year.
The third-generation Subaru Crosstrek went on sale in Japan in December 2022, and Sumitomo Rubber Industries shares that it is supplying its Falken Ziex ZE001 A/S as an original equipment tyre. The Crosstrek will wear the all-season Falken tyre in size 225/55R18 98V.
Bridgestone is adding a new brand to its tyre line-up in 2023 with the launch of the Newno range. Initially available in Japan only, Bridgestone promotes Newno as a “low fuel consumption tyre” that offers “safer and more secure mobility life for a wide range of customers” as well as “low environmental impact.” The Newno range debuts in Bridgestone’s domestic market on 1 February and will be available in 65 dimensions for 13- to 18-inch rim diameters.
Yokohama Rubber reports that the relocation to a new headquarters at the site of its Hiratsuka factory in Japan will commence 10 January 2023. The various head office departments will make the shift from Tokyo to Hiratsuka City in seven steps over the following two months, with the move complete by 6 March.
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