After reporting triple-digit growth in its electric vehicle and automotive business in China during the first half of 2024, Eurogrip Laminations (EGLA) announced that it has agreed a partnership with China’s Hixih Rubber Industry Group. Italy-based EGLA turned over some 836 million euros in 2023.
Sailun Group and Tire Direct have broken ground on Aztema, their new joint venture factory in Mexico, with the partners laying a symbolic foundation stone at a ceremony on 15 May 2024. The first phase of construction at the Aztema plant will result in a facility with an initial capacity to produce 6 million car tyres a year; the partners plan to start production in March 2025.
The Inverness based tyre wholesaler acquired as part of Bond International’s recent deal to acquire Stepgrades Motor Accessories Limited from Halfords Group is forming a joint venture with long term Bond customer Goodtread Tyre Co, based in Alness in the Scottish Highlands. The two parties said the JV would strengthen their tyre distribution operations covering north and west Scotland and the islands, increasing the availability of stock as a result of Bond’s large stockholding, improving warehousing, and modernising Bond’s newly acquired Birkenshaw Distributors Ltd. Sandy MacKenzie and Mark Kelman from Goodtread Tyre Co will head the joint Inverness operation.
It has been a while since we last mentioned the KamaTyresKZ tyre factory in Kazakhstan, a joint venture between Russia’s Tatneft and vehicle manufacturer the Allur Group of Companies. The plant officially opened in December 2022 and is capable of making 3 million passenger vehicle tyres and 500,000 truck tyres a year at full capacity. KamaTyresKZ initially produced tyres under the Forza brand name but is now debuting a new brand – Attar.
Uddevalla Municipality in Sweden has authorised Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) to proceed with the construction of its new joint venture end-of-life tyre recycling plant. This clearance comes after Enviro, Antin Infrastructure Partners, and Michelin reached a final decision on the project’s investment on 7 February. Having secured all essential environmental and construction approvals, Enviro anticipates commencing construction in the first quarter of 2024.
Sailun Group is partnering to build a new factory in Mexico. Through its wholly owned subsidiary Sailun International Holding (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., the Chinese firm signed a joint venture agreement with TD International Holding and Sapide CV (TD Mexico) on 15 December. The partners will build a facility capable of producing 6 million semi-steel radial tyres annually and are also considering the future establishment of capacity to produce 1.65 million all-steel radials a year.
Symbio, Michelin’s equally owned joint venture with automotive supplier Forvia and vehicle manufacturer Stellantis, has inaugurated its SymphonHy facility today. Located in Saint-Fons, within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, the site houses Symbio’s headquarters, a production plant, an innovation hub and the Symbio Hydrogen Academy.
TMD Friction and Hella have agreed to transfer the 50 per cent share currently held by TMD Friction in the brake joint venture Hella Pagid to Hella. Hella will thus become the sole shareholder of Hella Pagid. Founded in 2013, Hella Pagid, a joint venture between automotive supplier Hella and brake friction manufacturer TMD Friction, sells brake components and accessories on the global automotive aftermarket. The purchase price has not been disclosed.
Recycling company Remondis Group recently signed a letter of intent with Pyrum Innovations. The partners intend to set up a plant for reclaiming raw materials from end-of-life tyres on a site in Bremen, Germany that’s owned by Weserport, a subsidiary of Remondis sister company Rhenus. This plant will be capable of recycling 20,000 tonnes of tyres annually.
Recently, Jiangsu Xingda Steel Tyre Cord and Hixih Rubber entered an investment agreement. It is reported that the two parties are preparing to establish a joint venture to build a factory with an annual output of 50,000 tons of steel tyre cord. According to the agreement between the two parties, Xingda will be responsible for all operations and management of the joint venture company. The board of directors of the joint venture company consists of three directors, with the number of directors appointed by Xingda and Hixih being two and one.
German end-of-life tyre (ELT) recycling specialist Pyrum Innovations AG plans to build a Pyrum pyrolysis plant in the Czech Republic together with a local energy company. This facility, located near the border with Germany, will have the capacity to process 20,000 tonnes of ELTs a year and is scheduled to start operations in 2025.
On 30 August, the first tyre rolled off the production line in the second phase of the Thailand factory run by Huayi, which owns the Double Coin brand. Tyrepress China learned that the project’s second phase involves the production capacity of 300,000 all-steel radial tyres and officially started construction in March this year. If the second phase reaches capacity, the annual production capacity of Huayi’s Thailand factory will be increased to 1.5 million pieces.
Plans for two Saudi Arabia tyre factory projects were announced during 2022. In January 2022, Black Arrow Tire Company (Blatco) agreed to a tyre factory construction joint venture with Kumho. By June 2022, Kingdom Tyres, which describes itself as Saudi’s largest tyre producer, signed a provisional investment agreement with the Royal Commission for Jubail & Yanbu. Here Tyres & Accessories considers the latest developments with both projects and asks if the market is big enough for both factories?
Repairify Australia Holdings Pty Ltd and Capricorn Society Limited have entered into a joint venture agreement to deliver “leading-edge remote automotive repair solutions to repairers across Australia and New Zealand”. Repairify and Capricorn have equal ownership of the joint venture, which will be branded as Repairify and distributed across Australia and New Zealand by Capricorn through the Capricorn Preferred Supplier Network.
Pyrum Innovations is bringing its pyrolysis-based tyre recycling technology to the UK in partnership with SUEZ recycling and recovery UK Ltd. The two companies have entered into a one-year exclusivity agreement for a facility with three pyrolysis reactors that can process approximately 20,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres annually. During the year SUEZ will determine the plant’s location and, with support from Pyrum, begin and finance the approval process.
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.
Hella
Huayi
Repairify