Now an integral part of the Kal Tire Mining Tyre Group, OTR is close to completing the systematic ‘rebranding’ of its corporate image to the new global Kal Tire corporate brand. As part of this, the traditional green/black/white OTR identity is in the process of being replaced by the orange/blue/white of Kal Tire, and all new company trucks now hit the road branded in the Kal Tire ‘all white’ livery.
Motivated by the positive response it received in 2010, on June 22 and 23 Goodyear Dunlop Tyres UK was back at Vertikal Days, the country’s only dedicated event for the lifting industry. On the company’s stand at the Merseyside-based show was the Dunlop SP ER50 crane tyre – a product Goodyear Dunlop says has taken off since last year’s show.
Earlier this year, NDI Tyre & Tube Supplies Ltd. announced plans to outsource the distribution of its passenger car private brand and alter operations to shift the company’s focus onto the supply of specialised and niche market products. Since this time the local subsidiary of Denmark’s Nordisk Daek Import A.S. has been busy implementing these plans, and the result of this is that NDI is now ready to participate in the OTR sector to a far, far greater extent.
Price increases averaging 11 per cent are to be implemented on a number of Bridgestone company products in the US and Canada. The new prices take effect August 1 and apply to Bridgestone and Firestone brand truck and bus tyres, Bandag brand retreads and retreading materials, and Bridgestone, Firestone and Continuum OTR tyre products and retread rubber.
An article first published by Bloomberg on June 29 and subsequently reprinted in a number of newspapers around the world has thrown the spotlight on the effect demand for commodities from China and other emerging markets is having on the price of mining tyres. The Bloomberg journalist, Elisabeth Behrmann, compares the price for “tyres about 3.5 metres (11 feet) across,” such as those fitted to Caterpillar trucks employed in for iron ore and coal haulage, are fetching around US$100,000 on the spot market. Behrmann’s figures come from Australian contract miner Leighton Holdings, who works projects for mining majors such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto; in reporting the current spot price, she notes it lies above the US price for a Porsche 911 Carrera S or a condominium in Miami. UK buyers, it must be said, have to shell out around 33 per cent more for this particular Porsche model than their American counterparts. But you get the idea.
The latest EM/OTR sector product from Steinbichler Optotechnik is the Intact 4300 tyre shearography machine. This unit machine is designed for the non-destructive testing of giant OTR tyres with an inner diameter between 45 and 63-inches, a width of 550 to 1550 mm and a maximum weight of 7500 kilograms. This most recent addition to the Intact series can clearly detect non-visible separation in the bead, sidewall and tread area within 20 minutes, enabling the easy identification of areas where belt separation has occurred. The first Intact 4300 is already in service with Togliatti, Russia-based company Povolzhskaya Shinnaya Kompaniya, the German manufacturer reports.
Growth at Techking continues unabated. The Qingdao, China-based company, who in early June celebrated its sixth birthday, started 2011 with a passenger car range containing more than 100 size specifications and a swelling truck and bus radial range. But its core business remains the off-road sector and by last year Techking offered consumers some 229 OTR radial specifications. This year it is adding a further twenty or so products to this bulging portfolio. Speaking with Tyres & Accessories, Techking’s marketing and sales manager James Wang reported that a number of fitments for the mining sector are being introduced. “We have developed 14.00R25 & 14.00R24, ETAT (E2) tyres particularly for long travel distance trucks for mining or logging transportation businesses, especially those operating in Australia, Indonesia and Canada. A second important new product is our 13.00R25, ETOT (E4) tyre, designed for heavy mining trucks in China, Mongolia, South East Asia and some African countries. A third newly introduced tyre is our 21.00R25, ETHM (E2), a high-mileage and speed tyre designed for an Australia original equipment customer.
Within the United Kingdom the off-road tyre market is dominated by the mining sector and it is no secret that Bridgestone has safely the largest presence here. When Tyres & Accessories spoke with Bridgestone UK’s OTR sector product manager Barry Coleman recently, he confirmed that current industry data places Bridgestone as clear UK market leader in the OTR/EM tyre segment and added that the company’s particular strength within the segment is in the rigid dump truck business. Bridgestone’s tyre portfolio for these 100 tonne plus vehicles includes sizes up to 3700R51 in the UK.
Following the news in April 2009 that Shandong Wanda Boto Tyre Co., Ltd., was to build a passenger car production facility nearby its existing tyre manufacturing complex in China, company representatives have given a update of the construction process. Speaking to Tyres & Accessories back then, company representatives explained how, despite the ongoing economic downturn, Boto Tyre was planning to build a 15 million passenger car radial a year plant. Around 1 billion yuan was said to have been earmarked for the expansion work.
For more than 30 years Bridgestone Americas has celebrated the ingenuity of its employees at the Annual Bridgestone Americas Inventors Night. This year’s event recognised the innovative efforts of 86 employees, whose work led to 74 United States patents being issued in 2010 and the development of numerous trade secrets. These 74 patents, the tyre maker notes, are numerically sufficient to rank Bridgestone Americas in the top 300 organisations worldwide to be granted US patents according to the Intellectual Property Owners annual rankings.
Automechanika 2011 features a strong contingent of Indian tyre manufacturers and distributors including well known names such as JK Tyre, BKT and Emrald, to name just three. As the show organisers expanded the number of exhibitors many times over at the fair in general, it appears to have been a conscious decision to invite tyre makers from the subcontinent to the tyre halls in a bid to attract increasingly influential companies in addition to leading Chinese firms such as Hangzhou Zhongce, Shandong Linglong and Sailun.
Automechanika Middle East 2011 will feature a strong showing from Al Dobowi when the company will further promote a new pattern for its Infinity range of tyres, which the firm began promoting at the recent Autopromotec event in Bologna. Al Dobowi Group will be on-show in the dedicated tyres section of the exhibition located in Hall 7.
AME International recently promoted Kyle Sparkman to the newly created role of mining industry product manager. Sparkman credits his success with new product sales to a combination of the steady growth of emerging market economies and the ability of AME to provide customers with its mining equipment in a timely manner. Sparkman and AME plan to continue expanding their product line to match the demands of the expanding mineral industry.
Chinese industrial tyre and rubber track manufacturer Sihong Benteng Rubber Products Co., Ltd. has clarified that the company is not lowering its prices after all, following the publication of details suggesting it would. According to company representatives: “Threestones has no…plan to decrease prices currently because of the high rubber raw material cost.”
Twenty-five year-old independent supplier of specialist wheels, tyres, axles and components, Boston’s Totrax Ltd began supplying India-manufactured Emrald Greckster industrial tyres exclusively five years ago. The distributer also supplies the UK market with exclusive products from Europe, manufactured by Italmatic. An effective way in which Totrax has worked is having built up a network of independent industrial tyre specialists supplying the forklift truck and industrial trailer market with a complete range of tyres and wheels. This specialist network allows all members to supply the Emrald or Italmatic brands wherever their customers operate, allowing continuity of brand across the UK. Totrax also states that it will continue to seek to add industrial tyre specialists to its network, encouraging interested parties to contact the company.
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