Goodway Rubber Industries Sdn Bhd from Malaysia has joined Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau (TRIB) along with Pak Rubber & Retreading Services (Pvt) Ltd. from Pakistan. “We are very happy to welcome both companies to the TRIB family and we know they will enjoy the many benefits TRIB offers to its members worldwide,” said Harvey Brodsky, TRIB’s Managing Director.
Afghanistan has developed a reputation as a centre of heroin smuggling activity; it is less widely known for another illegal cross-border trade – the smuggling of tyres into neighbouring Pakistan. Yet the importation of these sought after items appears to be well worth the effort and expense endured by those in the business, as the average price difference between the cost of a tyre to a smugger and an importer is said to be in the range of Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 (£22.50 to £37.60). Of the Rs3,000 minimum price difference, smugglers expend about Rs1,000 covering transport and bribe costs, leaving a respectable profit at the end.
A burst tyre is an inconvenience no matter where it occurs, but at least motorists in the UK don’t have to worry about this…..
The education minister of Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, narrowly escaped with his life after army troops mistook the sound of a tyre rapidly deflating to be a militant attack and began indiscriminately firing their weapons throughout the convoy of vehicles in which he was travelling.
Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed was en route to the wedding of a colleague’s son when the heavily worn tyre fitted to a military vehicle escorting the entourage burst. Soldiers in the vicinity, accustomed to the regional tensions with neighbouring Pakistan and the odd tussle with Islamic separatists, wasted no time in responding to the tyre’s loud, gunshot-like report.
The Lone Wolf Transglobal Expedition has successfully crossed the border into Pakistan, marking the completion of four months on the road during which the team’s Land Rover Wolf Defender, shod on Cooper tyres, has traversed a multitude of demanding terrain. The versatile Cooper Discoverer STT (Super Traction Tread) has carried the Lone Wolf team over thousands of miles of unpaved mud roads, snow covered mountain paths and desert dunes, as well as proving remarkably comfortable on western motorways.
Having left the UK on 2 January, the Lone Wolf Transglobal Expedition aims to circumnavigate the globe in just 12 months. With the help of Cooper Tire, the eighth largest tyre maker in the world, the expedition will travel through 40 countries in a vehicle originally designed and built to the specifications of the famous explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
Pakistan has published a list of 38 items, which are banned from being imported into the country from India. Interestingly retreaded tyres and part-worn tyres feature on the list alongside a string of unsavoury items including: Cannabis, Opium, tanks, machine guns, automatic rifles and armoured vans! A number of more innocuous items including lambs, rabbits and freezers also feature on the list. The 2006 Import Policy Order issued by the Pakistani Ministry of Commerce lists 773 items that can be imported into Pakistan during the 2006/07 financial year. India has complained that the law is against the letter and spirit of the South Asia Free Trade (SAFTA) agreement, which came into force on 1 January 2006.
The speculation that Formula One might soon be under new ownership was correct, but contrary to reports, the sport will not be falling into Far Eastern hands, the Daily Telegraph has reported.
Bernie Ecclestone yesterday dismissed talk of a $1 billion bid from a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, Hutchison Whampoa. “I spoke to Hutchison. They sent a boy to do a man’s job. We are not interested in selling to them. We get offers like this every day, but it is not what we want for the future of F1,” Mr Ecclestone told the newspaper.
Indian manufacturer JK Tyre was reportedly one of three large companies that forked out nearly £16 million in sponsorship in order to see the Jordan F1 team hire Narain Karthikeyan. In fact, “money was really not a consideration” when it comes to F1 sponsorship, the company told the AFP news agency.
Ceat has entered the Indian all-steel truck radial market, with products designed and manufactured for the Indian market by Pirelli, Europe. In the 2004/2005 financial year, the company projects a sales turnover in the region of 19.05 billion rupees (approximately £220 million). Ceat says it is eager to tap into the growing truck radial market hoping that eventually 10-15 per cent of its business will come from steel radials.
Currently the use of truck steel radials in India is about two per cent, the is considerably less than neighbouring Pakistan (35 per cent) and a world apart from Europe (90 per cent). The proportion of steel readial in the Indian truck tyre market is projected to touch 10 per cent by 2007, Ceat’s vice-president, sales and marketing, Kalyan K Paul, said.
According to the company, the use of its truck radial products can increase initial mileage by over 50 per cent, achieve fuel savings off up to 10 per cent and provide better traction and braking.
Tyre smuggling costs the Pakistan Government 1.25 billion Rupees (US$ 21.73 million) a year in lost import duty and sales tax. An estimated one million tyres are illegally imported, many originating in Japan and India.
Pakistan’s largest tyre manufacturer, General Tyre & Rubber Co. of Pakistan, is to expand annual production by 30 per cent, from one million tyres to 1.3 million, with an investment of 500 million Rupees ($8.65 million). 50 per cent of General’s sales are OE (cars and trucks), 45 per cent replacement and five per cent to the Government. The company also exports tyres with a value of US$700,000, which is expected to rise to US$ 1 million this year. 31 per cent of Pakistan’s tyre demand is met by domestic producers, 53 per cent by imports and the remaining 16 per cent by smuggled truck tyres.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
