MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, the commercial vehicle unit if MAN AG, expects to see a flat 2001 and is cutting 1,200 jobs in Germany and Austria. The vehicle manufacturer expects to see a 5-8% cut in the European truck and bus market in 2001 but intends combating this by increasing its own market share.
Vauxhall’s dealer franchise fast fit operation now operates 250 outlets in the UK. The expansion of the fast fit chain within the dealer network emphasises the importance of the fast fit market to the viability of the UK car distributor network. The sector is growing in importance as it increases market share, taking fast fit tyre and exhaust business from the shrinking independent fast fit sector.
As announced in a press conference in Tokyo, car manufacturer Suzuki will supply 3,000 so called minicars a month to Nissan from 2002 onwards. With this agreement Nissan will enter the small car segment – with a maximum capacity of 660 cc – which already has a market share of 30 percent in Japan.
At its so-called annual strategy day, Michelin had only partly good news to tell. Following the disastrous Firestone tyre recall, the price increases in the US-replacement market appear to have stuck. However, recent price increases in the US truck tyre replacement market have not held and this is squeezing the EBIT margins. For the first time ever, analysts were allowed to see a tyre made by the C3M process. Michelin is convinced that it can increase market share significantly in the UHP market with the help of C3M, while analysts from Deutsche Bank see C3M as a key driver to achieve an EBIT margin of 10 per cent in 2005, compared to 7.6 per cent in 2000.
Pirelli and Alcatel are the European market leaders in power cables, and together with Corning, Lucent and Draka in telecommunication cables. The market suffers from overcapacity, but Pirelli is the most active company when a factory is for sale in order to secure market share.
Bridgestone/Firestone is displaying its new generation of off-the-road tyres at Intermat 2000, one of a series of exhibitions for the construction and civil engineering industries, to be held in Paris from 16-21 May. Bridgestone claims a global OTR tyre market share in excess of 40% and in the past three years, has invested US$ 100 million in this product sector.
Michelin’s Q1 sales rose by 14.8% to 3.59 bn Euro; 464 m Euro more than for the same period last year. The EBIT level is, as expected, in the region of 10% of turnover.
Kumho Tire is seeking OE business in Europe and North America. The company has announced expansion of production in Asia, for example in the Nanjing factory.
After a bad year in 1999, Goodyear has announced that the company is now “on track” with its turnaround strategy.
Ford predicts that it will once again reach a 10 p.c. market share in Europe within three years, according to the Wall Street Journal. Luxury car sales will play a large part in reaching the target. Renault and Nissan are moving closer together in Europe, merging their sales organisations. Around 9% of the 5,600 jobs are expected to be lost, saving some 1 billion Euro. By 2002, DaimlerChrysler intends to create 15,000 jobs. 5,000 of these will be in Germany in the service field of leasing, fleet management and fast fit services, according to the Financial Times Deutschland.
Since the early 90s, French tyre maker Michelin has continuously lost market share year on year in the passenger car and light truck sectors. The company used to have a 25% market share Europe-wide and this had fallen to 17% last year. According to Michelin, prices were too high vis-a-vis those of major competitors and were no longer competitive, as the end user is prepared to pay only around 10-15% more for a premium product. The necessary price cuts can only be achieved if the company is able to increase productivity. Market experts are convinced that the productivity of Bridgestone/Firestone exceeds that of Michelin by 40%. Michelin is currently undergoing a restructuring programme which will lead to the job losses – or at least early retirement – of around 10% of the European workforce over the next three or four years. Jean Michel Coulon (52), head of the passenger and light truck tyre division in Europe expressed confidence in talks with this magazine that the erosion of market share has now been halted once and for all. Coulon made it clear that he is not aiming to gain market share – his goal is to stop the erosion of market share, to implement an effective multi-brand strategy, to improve the product mix and, finally, to avoid a price war.
Sales up till July seem to be in line with last year’s strong performance. Ford is one of the winners, GM is stagnating and Chrysler heavily losing market share. BMW, Porsche and some of the Japanese and Korean car manufacturers are performing particularly well.
The new Eagle NCT 5, introduced to the trade press at Goodyear’s own South of France test track in Mireval in mid-February, is a high-performance tyre in speed categories from H (up to 210 km/h) to Y (up to 300 km/h) with the emphasis on comfort. The manufacturer claims that the new type of tyre, immediately available in more than 20 sizes, is an improvement on its predecessor, the NCT 3 – sometimes to a very considerable extent – in braking on dry and wet roads or aquaplaning both in straight-line driving or cornering. The new product is aimed at an interesting growth market. 52 million tyres of speed index H and faster are currently sold in Europe per year, and this segment already covers 28 p.c. of the market (186 million tyres). The market share of high-performance tyres in Germany is about 35 p.c. at the moment, but still rising strongly. In the new NCT 5 Goodyear’s tyre developers had ecological qualities especially in mind. Compared with its predecessor the newly developed tyre can boast rolling resistance reduced by 20 p.c. and optimised tyre noise. In addition to the reduced rolling resistance which, according to the manufacturer, saves up to 5 p.c. in fuel, the NCT 5’s mileage is said to be improved by up to 25 p.c. In naming this new tyre Goodyear quite deliberately skipped the number 4, since the Far East, one of the target markets for the NCT 5, regards the number 4 as a symbol of impending disaster.
ContiTech Air Spring Systems, a business unit of Continental AG’s ContiTech group, announced a “Letter of Intent” for founding a joint venture company with South Korean company Dae Won Kang to build up a plant for producing complete air spring systems. Dae Won Kang’s market share in this field in Korea is nearly 100 per cent.
In the hot cure field Michelin is the European market leader with its product Remix. “Recamic”, Michelin’s cold cure process six years in the making, is still eyed with curiosity.In Europe Michelin has been a strong competitor for many years and has a current market share in truck tyre retreading of 23 p.c., which it intends to raise to 30 p.c. by the year 2005.
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