The London Stock Exchange’s Regulatory New Service reports that Kumho Petrochemical has increased its shareholding in Kumho Tire Co., Inc. The majority shareholder raised its shareholding in the tyremaker from 44.65 per cent to 44.77 per cent through the purchase of 85,000 common shares. Kumho Petrochemical now holds 31,339,160 shares in the company.
(Tire Review/Akron) Former Continental Tire North America executive Terry Edwards has been named vice president of the Kumho America Technical Center, located in Fairlawn, Ohio. Edwards will oversee day-to-day operations of Kumho Tire (USA) Corp.’s US research and development facility.
November 15 to 18’s Rally Ireland gave Kumho its first ever win in a World Rally Championship event when Niall McShea drove his Kumho-shod Subaru Impreza WRX STi to outright victory in the rally’s Production Car Class. The 31-year-old driver, who originally hails from County Fermanagh, capped off what Kumho has called a ‘landmark year of motorsport’ – the manufacturer also relished another significant victory in 2007, winning the LMP2 class at Le Mans after only three visits to the Circuit de la Sarthe.
The choice of tyres during this year’s WRC was possibly never more critical than at Rally Ireland, a round that drivers such as reigning World Champion Sebastian Loeb admitted was perhaps the most difficult they had ever competed in. The notoriously slippery roads were constantly covered in mud and it rained throughout the event. The resulting treacherous conditions put paid to many hopes, including those of Works Ford driver and former World Champion Marcus Gronholm.
According to a report published in South Korea’s The Korea Times newspaper, the Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency reported on November 28 that the deaths of 15 workers at a tyre manufacturing facility in the South Korean city of Daejeon between May 2006 and October 2007 are seen to be a “collective outbreak.” This means, adds the paper, that a possible work related connection is seen between the deaths, as all occurred within a short time to employees working in the same area.
Almost six years to the day after the Levi versus Tesco ruling (see page three for more on this), Kumho UK managing director, Steve Tidmarsh, used his recent NTDA Tyre Wholesalers Group (TWG) speech to address the subject of grey importing in a refreshingly direct fashion. “The grey market,” he observed, “always seems to increase when supply rates are poor.” He continued: “For some reason this enrages wholesalers, but let us be fair, it is often exploited by them. However, to balance that, it is also right to state that it is the manufacturers who drive the grey market and currently with the weak US dollar products are a-plenty,” he explained.
Peter Gaster, group managing director of KRT and current chair of the NTDA, has agreed to lead a new steering committee, which was formed by the NTDA to support the organisers of Brityrex in the run-up to Brityrex 2009. Alan Baldwin, David White, Ashley Croft and Darren Duguid are just a few of the other well known industry names that have committed their time to the project (full list below). “We are delighted to attract such a wide range of talent from our sector and I look forward to working with the group to further develop this vital show for the UK tyre industry,” Peter Gaster commented. The first meeting of the steering group will take place in London on Thursday 6 December.
(Akron/Tire Review) Kumho Tire Co. is indeed planning to build its first US tyre plant, and hopes to announce its location by the end of this year. Dr. Sae Chul Oh, Kumho’s president, revealed the plans at last week’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Company officials said that as many as five locations in Georgia and Alabama are being considered. The South Korean tyremaker is seeking a location that gives it the best access to US auto plants, a skilled labor force, optimum labor costs and ample access for workers and management. The plant will be based on Kumho’s modular Automated Production Unit technology, which it unveiled a few years ago in South Korea.
At the same time, Oh said, the company is also considering a plant for Europe. Oh said that for now only one will be built, and it appears the US is the first choice. A European plant would most likely be located in Eastern Europe.
Plans are afoot to increase Kumho Tire’s global capacity by 20 per cent in the coming year. The company’s CEO and president, Dr. Sael Chul Oh, has commented that this growth would be fulfilled in part by the Korean tyremaker’s operations in China; two of Kumho’s three established plants in the country are scheduled for expansion. A fourth facility is also currently being built in China.
In 2006 Kumho had a global capacity of 45.3 million tyres, and plans to increase this to 56.4 million by 2008 appear to have been met and surpassed ahead of schedule, with the manufacturer reported to possess a current worldwide capacity of 60 million units, through which it generates US$12 billion in annual tyre sales across 180 countries.
Kumho’s European motorsport division has enjoyed considerable success across a range of motorsport series in 2007. Perhaps the highlight of the year was the success of the Le Mans LMP2 class-winning Lola Zytek of Binnie Motorsports. As the car was shod with Kumho Tyres, Binnie’s success represented an historic achievement for the Korean tyre manufacturer, competing at Le Mans for only the third time.
Kumho supported both the Binnie Motorsports entry, comprised of Bill Binnie (US), Allen Timpany (GB) and Chris Buncombe (GB), and the Kruse Motorsport Pescarolo Judd of Tony Burgess (Can), Jean de Pourtales (Fr) and Norbert Siedler (Aut). The Binnie Car won LMP2 outright and finished 18th overall. Sadly the Kruse car did not survive the full 24 hours.
Said Bill Binnie: “We experienced just about every type of weather during the race from dry/warm conditions to torrential rain and used Kumho’s full arsenal of tyres as a result. They all performed admirably and were a key element of our victory.”
(Akron/Tire Review) Kumho Tire USA plans to launch a new luxury touring tyre at the upcoming SEMA Show. The Ecsta LX Platinum features an asymmetrical tread, three dimensional “waffle” sipes, and a jointless nylon cap, and comes with a 60,000-mile limited treadwear warranty, the company said. The tyre has a UTQG rating of 600 AA, and will be available in 36 H-, V- and W-rated sizes covering 14- through 19-inch wheel diameters.
Kumho Tires has put its hand to creating a concept car, or at least a concept for a concept car, and the result is a vehicle that uses tyres not only in places you’d expect to find them. The Epoch Concept, as the car has been named, features a chassis made from bamboo and body panels from recycled tyre tread rubber – both features intended to offset the vehicle’s carbon footprint. Propulsion is planned as taking place – bearing in mind that so far the Epoch exists only at the idea stage and is not actually a working concept – by means of Magnetic Levitation units integrated into each of the vehicle’s four wheel hubs; these would purportedly generate zero friction and allow for maximum torque.
Kumho has been a significant supplier to OEMs in its home market of Korea for many years. Recently, however, the company has taken a number of strides towards securing deals with major automotive manufacturers in Europe and the US. To that end, Kumho have set up offices in Birmingham, Hamburg and Detroit, as well as an office in Tianjin, China.
The tyremaker’s breakthrough in Europe came in 2001, when Kumho won the contract to supply 200,000 tyres a year to Volkswagen AG for the 2002 model year Polo. Though this was the company’s first ever European contract, it was not the first association with Volkswagen, to whom it already supplied tyres for the Mexican built Beetle. More recently, Kumho was selected by DaimlerChrysler AG to supply tyres for the second generation Mercedes Benz A-Class model. The development programme for this contract was led by Kumho’s Birmingham based European Technical Centre (KETC) and the main focus was ride refinement whilst maintaining suitable levels of wet and dry performance as well as a low rolling resistance. The result was a new tread compound and carcass material for the Kumho SOLUS KH15.
Kumho Tire Co Inc has announced its majority shareholder Kumho Petrochemical has bought 43,000 shares in the company, increasing its stake to 39.86 per cent from 39.80 per cent. As a result Kumho Petrochemical now holds 27.90 million shares in the Korean tyre manufacturer.
(Akron/Tire Review) Kumho Petrochemical bought an additional 45,000 shares in Kumho Tire, raising its stake to just over 38 per cent and firming its position as the tyremaker’s largest shareholder.
Kumho Petrochemical now holds 26.73 million shares in the tyre company.
(Rubber Asia/sg) The aggressive forays of Korean tyre major Kumho into China, carried out with a view to establishing the country as its major overseas production base, will go a long way towards realising the company’s vision to emerge as the world’s 5th largest tyre maker by 2015. The booming Chinese tyre market is to become the most important overseas production base for the Kumho Tire Company, if its ongoing activities, the latest being the recent launch of its US$220 million wholly-owned radial truck/bus project in the Nanjing Economic and Technical Development Zone, are any indication. This is the Korean’s fourth major Chinese project, and the company hopes to ultimately produce 1.4 million tyres there annually. The groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed plant was held in May, and the first phase of the project, with an installed capacity of 300,000 tyres per year, is expected to go on stream by June 2008.
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