Whether its raw materials, machinery, research and development or the latest manufacturing trends, this tag provides up-to-the-minute insights into the upstream part of the tyre industry.
Askar Mamin, the prime minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, recently hosted the general director of PJSC Tatneft, Nail Maganov, for talks relating the construction of a new tyre factory in Kazakhstan.
Kordsa has been awarded the Gold rating for sustainability by Ecovadis. The rating reflects the tyre and construction reinforcement material supplier’s commitment to achieving sustainability. It also calls Kordsa outstanding in the environment, sustainable procurement, workforce and human resources categories. The Gold award places Kordsa within the top companies among more than 40,000 surveyed for their sustainability credentials between 2015-2019.
Vipal Machinery is reporting growing sales in the USA, having sold five machines so far this year in the world’s largest tyre retreading market. According to the company, four major North American retreaders acquired the five pieces of machinery including Pete’s Road Services based in Corona, California.
In January 2019, the ground was broken on the US$614 million Roadbot tyre plant in Abu Dhabi. Local news sources described the project as a milestone in the capital of the United Arab Emirates as recently as January 2020. However, the project has since hit a roadblock as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tyres & Accessories has seen documents that show how recent progress has been limited, though initial steps seem to have progressed well. Specifically, the official letter from Roadbot Tyre Industries dated July 2020 confirms that all the necessary planning applications, architectural designs and structure drawings have been approved and completed. Yet critical machinery work came to a standstill in March 2020.
Despite the fact that the UK was in the middle of lockdown, Michelin Tyre Plc’s ultra-modern retread manufacturing operation resumed production at the end of April. In fact, according to the company, there were only two reasons that the Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent site paused manufacturing at all: because the coronavirus-related closures coincided with a pre-planned maintenance stoppage; and because – again due to Covid-19 – there was trouble securing deliveries of the right raw materials from the continent prior to April (see “Michelin Stoke up-and-running, looking forward to ‘steady market growth’” for Michelin UK factory manager Francois Levert’s view on how things have progressed after reopening). Therefore, Michelin UK’s retread manufacturing operation only actually endured a three-week factory shutdown. The neighbouring UK headquarters opened in mid-July and so now its truck tyre and retreading business is putting the focus on success in the new normal. This began with a communications drive that has seen the manufacturer promote the ecological benefits of retreads. Tyres & Accessories spoke with Michelin Plc managing director Chris Smith in order to find out more.
Bridgestone Corporation will end kart tyre supply on 31 December 2022. According to the company, the decision to leave the largely bias construction kart tyre segment “reflects careful examination of the company’s portfolio and resources”. However, Bridgestone remains fully responsible for the supply of kart tyres until 31 December 2022, at which time outstanding supply contracts will end.
It is somewhat ironic that the number 2020 has inherent associations with perfect vision and yet this year has turned out to be the most unpredictable in a lifetime. For example, no-one saw President Trump’s twitter-borne sideswipe at Goodyear’s tyres coming last month – how could they? However, on a more serious note, the effects of uncertainty has real-life impact. And this month has seen more than its fair share of such harsh realities in the tyre industry.
This article appears in full in the October edition of Tyres & Accessories magazine. Not yet a subscriber? You can change that here.
Specialty tyre manufacturer GRI is adding a new mixing facility in the Mirigama Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Sri Lanka. The new mixing facility will have capacity to produce 200 tonnes day, up from the current capacity of 50 – 60 metric tonnes a day, and is being interpreted as a pre-cursor to increased tyre output.
The supervisory board of Continental AG has approved the executive board’s decision to discontinue production at the manufacturer’s plant in Aachen, Germany by the end of 2021. The supervisory board confirmed the executive boards decision during a board meeting today (30 September 2020). The closure decision will affect around 1,800 out of the about 2,000 jobs located at the Aachen site.
GKN Wheels’ multi-million-pound investment programme at its Telford factory has resulted in the achievement of record targets. Despite a number of obstacles, not least the impact Coronavirus pandemic has had on the plant’s operational capabilities, the new manufacturing plant is now producing more than three times as many wheels as the old plant, with 55 high-quality off-highway wheels now being manufactured every hour. With the new line now fully operational, the old lines and assembly cells have now been decommissioned and disposed of.
The tyre manufacturing output of Iranian factories increased 26 per cent in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (1399 and specifically the period between 20 March and 21 August 2020) compared with the same period last year. Such growth is consistent with the Iranian tyre industry’s 10-year plan to double in size by 2025, which was publicised in 2015. And it also corresponds to earlier optimism related to Iranian tyre market growth, but what do the latest figures tell us about the product mix of the Iranian national tyre production base?
Tyres & Accessories contacted Bridgestone for its response to the statement put out by French authorities following its decision to shutter its tyre factory in Béthune, France. Bridgestone addressed the characterisation of the closure as a “premeditated murder,” the idea that the plant has been deliberately allocated low-margin products, and that the plant had been passed over for investment.
On 12 September 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published its fourth batch of green manufacturing lists. The list includes 602 green factories, 371 green design products, 39 green parks and 50 green supply chain management demonstration enterprises.
Environmental campaigners have been protesting against Linglong’s Zrenjanin, Serbia tyre factory. At the same time the construction work, which has been variously described as either an 800 million euro or US$994 million project by different sources, has also been involved in certification disputes.
The president of the Hauts-de-France region has labelled Bridgestone’s planned closure of its Béthune tyre manufacturing plant “brutal” and a “premeditated assassination.” For good measure, Xavier Bertrand added “we are dealing with cynics and liars” in his strongly-worded response to Bridgestone’s announcement. In a joint statement with the French government, Bertrand’s Hauts-de-France Region called on the Bridgestone group to “assume its responsibilities,” alleging that the company’s divestment from and allocation of low-margin tyres to the Béthune plant over the last decade has “automatically” led to its deficit in competitiveness.
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Information office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Vipal
Michelin
Bridgestone
Free Photos; Pixabay
GRI
Continental AG
GKN
MohammadAli Dahaghin; Unsplash
Bridgestone