(Akron/Tire Review) South Korea’s Kumho Tire Co. already plans to expand annual capacity at its brand new Changchun plant, nearly doubling tyre build from 3.15 million to 6.3 million tyres. The expansion will take an investment of $108 million, Kumho officials said.
The plant began production on July 27, and will be the primary OE tyre supplier to Chinese carmaker First Automotive Works.
Kumho Tire announced on July 12 that it has signed a sponsorship deal with Manchester United. The four-year deal, settled for an undisclosed sum, will see Kumho obtain the rights to include the football team’s logo and images of the players in its advertisements. Company CEO Oh Se-chul said the tyremaker expects the sponsorship agreement will help promote their international image.
The tyremaker is already involved with the well-known football club, and announced in April that Manchester United would participate in a Kumho sponsored friendly match at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on July 20. Kumho said it plans to hold a joint press conference with Manchester United in Seoul on July 19.
(Akron/Tire Review) On July 1, Kumho Tire USA will start a marketing campaign in Detroit to officially launch its Ecsta DX aroma tyre. The multimedia campaign, which will include a rebate promotion, Internet advertising, newspaper ads, billboards and radio spots, will cover the Detroit metro area and most of Michigan, including Ann Arbor, Flint, Port Huron and Toledo, Ohio.
Kumho will also run print ads in regional editions of several national magazines, including Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Money, Parenting, Family Fun, U.S. News & World Report, Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated. Additionally, Kumho will have a presence at select Detroit-area events this summer, including the Woodward Dream Cruise and the Detroit Grand Prix American Le Mans Series race.
Preparations to ready Kumho Tire’s US$4 million latex processing facility in Vietnam have reached their conclusion and on June 28 the new plant began operations. The facility, located towards the south of the country in Binh Dong province, has an annual capacity of processing 11,000 tons of natural rubber latex, which will be sourced from within the province. Plant output will supply the tyremaker’s $380 million tyre factory now under construction nearby.
When the new tyre factory enters production early in 2008 it will have a capacity of more than 3 million radials per annum, and these tyres will both be sold on the domestic market and exported to North American, European and ASEAN markets.
The LMP2 class-winning Lola Zytek of Binnie Motorsports was shod with Kumho tyres – an historic achievement for the Korean tyre manufacturer, who was competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for only the third time. Kumho was supporting 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.
Both teams used a new wider front tyre designed to help improve performance. Kumho developed new tyre constructions and compounds specifically for Le Mans and the teams were able to choose from two slick compounds, one intermediate and one wet. 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.”
Peter Gaster of Kings Road Tyres and the National Chairman of the NTDA has been appointed as the new vice chairman of the Tyre Industry Federation Board. Gaster takes over from Steve Tidmarsh of Kumho Tyres who represents the Imported Tyre Manufacturers Association (ITMA) on the board and who stood down at the meeting. Jim Rickard of Michelin, the Inaugural Chairman of the TIF continues as Chairman.
Commented NTDA Director Richard Edy: “We are delighted that NTDA has been given the opportunity to take on this key role in the TIF which we see playing a pivotal role in promoting the interests of the multi billion pound UK Tyre Industry.”
NTDA became members of the TIF last year and have four members on the board, Peter Gaster, John Tarbox of Pan Autos and the Immediate Past Chairman of the NTDA and Richard Edy.
The world’s first lavender-scented tyres will soon be beguiling traffic and its drivers, passengers and pedestrians. Delticom has begun selling Kumho’s fragrant tyres in size 205/55 R 16 W Ecsta SPT through its online shops across Europe.
The Ultra High Performance (UHP) tyres from Kumho’s Ecsta line disperses its fragrance at warm atmospheric conditions to a radius of around 10 metres. The secret of the fragrant tyres is heat resistant oils, which give off a pleasant aroma. These unique tyres also have all the characteristics of a high performing tyre. Kumho Ecsta tyres are impressive for their high safety standards and driving stability on wet and dry roads, their long lifetimes and low noise levels.
One of Kumho Tire’s main US market tyre lines, the ultra high performance ECSTA, has been selected as the official tyre of the Sports Car Club of America’s Mazda MX-5 Cup, U.S.A. Kumho will provide ECSTA V700 tyres to all cars participating in the competition for the next 2 years, a total of more than 2,000 tyres per year.
“Our being selected as the official tyre provider of Mazda MX-5 Cup will positively display our tyre making technology in Northern America, and it will all promote Kumho’s reputation and tyre exports” said a company representative. Kumho sold US$150,000,000 of UHP tyres in North American markets last year and is planning to increase tyre exports to $200,000,000 dollars per year in the same region through increased marketing and active participation in various motor sport contests.
On June 7 South Korean industrial giant Hyosung Corp. revealed its plans to build a new £80 million tyre cord facility in Vietnam by 2010 as part of its drive to expand global production. The plant will be located in Dong Nai province, near Ho Chi Minh City, and will eventually produce 53,000 tons of tyre cord annually, much of which will be destined for export to Europe, South America and other parts of Asia.
(Akron/Tire Review) Kumho Tire USA Inc. has hired new key personnel at its OE sales office in Detroit. Former Ford product development engineer Gregory Dabkowski joined Kumho as Ford account manager. Dabkowski has spent the last 29 years at Ford, where he managed successful launches of key Ford programs.
In his new position, Dabkowski will be responsible for managing and coordinating Kumho’s tyre development and launch activities with Ford. He will also advise on commercial, quality, product design and marketing issues related to Ford programs. Dabkowski earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan at Dearborn.
David Dobradenka joined Kumho as OE quality manager. He has more than 14 years of quality engineering and management experience with automotive suppliers. He had been quality manager at ABB Corp. in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Coventry based manufacturer of zero emission commercial vehicles, Modec Limited, have chosen to fit Kumho tyres as OE on their range of environmentally friendly vehicles. Kumho will supply freight truck tyres to Modec, who officially opened their Binley factory on March 8. The Modec range of electric light commercial vehicles, which are powered by nickel chloride batteries, reportedly generate 102bhp and can reach a top speed of 50mph with a range of 100mph. The Modec is able to carry a load of up to 2 tons.
Kumho has participated in the development of the Modec from the earliest stages. “I am very honoured to work with Kumho Tires, who have supported this project and process from the beginning,” said Graham Mclntosh, product developer at Modec Limited. “Kumho Tires’ product fits the quality and price of Modec which is in high demand in urban cities.”
The groundbreaking ceremony for Kumho Tires’ fourth factory in China – and the first not to be engaged in the manufacture of passenger car tyres – was held in Nanjing on May 16 in the presence of more than three hundred company executives and distinguished guests. The company will invest around £50 million in the construction of this latest facility, which when completed in the second half of 2008 will specialise in the production of truck and bus radials. Annual production is planned at 300,000 units.
At the ceremony, Kumho chief executive Park SamKu stated “I am very glad to build this bus and truck tyre factory at Nanjing, an important place for us to further our growth in the Chinese market.” He added that Kumho intends to place a greater emphasis on dealings between the company’s Korean headquarters and its operations in China. Furthermore, Kumho Tires is planning, in the company’s own words, to “aggressively pursue the Chinese tyre market through an export markets diversification strategy.”
In an attempt to boost its sports marketing profile, Kumho Tires has invited phenomenally popular football team Manchester United to participate in a friendly game that the tyremaker is title sponsoring. The Kumho Tires Cup 2007 Manchester United Korean Tour, as the event is to be known, will take place on July 20 at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, and the lads from England will compete against leading South Korean professional football team FC Seoul.
A press conference held on April 27, attended by Kumho Tires CEO Sae-chul Oh, Manchester United president David Gill, FC Seoul president Wan-kyung Lee plus a number of dignitaries outlined the plans and hopes for July’s high-profile event. Kumho Tires’ president, Mr. Oh, said, “We hope that this game can lead young soccer lovers to have more aspiration for the future while revitalising general public’s interest in soccer reaching out to more people.”
Wolverhampton-based Bickford Truck Services, which specialises in hiring commercial vehicles for the construction industry, has appointed ATS Euromaster as principal tyre supplier for its fleet of over 300 trucks. The customer’s fitment policy also specifies a range of budget tyres including Taurus, Kumho and Matador. The fleet ranges from 7.5 to 44 tonnes and includes tippers, grab loaders, flatbeds, skip loaders, cranes, hook lifts, beavertails and tractor units, which are supplied on a mixture of contract hire and rental agreements to civil engineering companies nationwide.
Roger Bickford, joint Managing Director, explains: “Our fleet spends a lot of time operating off-road on construction sites, where the rugged terrain increases the chances of picking up tyre damage. This problem is escalated by the nature of some contracts, which can include penalty charges for unexpected downtime where vehicles are not back on the road within a designated time window.
(Akron/Tire Review) Yonhap News Service reported that South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has fined Korea Kumho Petrochemical Co. and Seetec Ltd. a combined US$63 million on claims the two companies conspired to fix pricing on rubber products used in tyre production.
The commission found the two companies, which control some 90 per cent of the South Korean synthetic rubber market, colluded on pricing on styrene butadiene and butadiene rubber between 2000 and 2003.
Kumho Petrochemical is part of Kumho Asiana Group, which includes Kumho Tire Co.
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