Russia
Several tyre makers have sold their manufacturing operations in Russia since 2022; Yokohama Rubber has not. L.L.C. Yokohama R.P.Z. suspended operations at its Lipetsk passenger car tyre plant in March of that year due to issues with raw material procurement, resuming production in August 2022.
According to Rosstat, Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service, tyre makers within the Russian Federation produced 45.6 million tyres and rubber tubes last year, 10.2 per cent fewer than in 2022 – a figure in turn 21.4 per cent lower than the 65.1 million tyres and rubber tubes manufactured in 2021. In total, tyre and tube production decreased 30.0 per cent between 2021 and 2023.
The new owner of the former Bridgestone factory in Ulyanovsk, Russia intends to resume tyre manufacturing at the site this year and wants to “reach significant production volumes” in 2025. According to the Ulyanovsk Region Development Corporation, S8 Capital has a first-stage goal of 2 million tyres per annum, which it will subsequently increase to 2.4 million tyres, the plant’s pre-acquisition output. The Ulyanovsk plant has a design capacity of 4.2 million tyres a year.
Prior to 2022, a factory in Vsevolozhsk, Russia produced around 80 per cent of Nokian Tyres’ passenger vehicle tyres, and many of these were sold throughout Europe. Times have changed and so has ownership of the Vsevolozhsk plant. New parent company Tatneft operates the business as Ikon Tyres and is seeking new markets to replace the sanctions-barred EU. According to automotive website Kolesa.ru, Ikon Tyres may have its sights on customers further afield.
Russian motorists can still purchase Nokian tyres, but the brand’s days are numbered in this market. After energy company Tatneft acquired Nokian Tyres’ local assets, it renamed the operation Ikon Tyres and began producing tyres under the Ikon name in June 2023. Ikon Tyres says the process of updating tyre sidewall moulds has taken several months, but it started the volume production of rebranded summer tyres in December. This means that all products that dealers sell from Spring 2024 will carry the Ikon name instead of Nokian.
Russian tyre maker Cordiant JSC, since May 2023 a S8 Capital business, has taken 99.9 per cent of Ulyanovsk-based tyre production business Bridgestone Tire Manufacturing CIS LLC operation under its control. The remaining 0.1 per cent is now managed by S8 Industrial Assets LLC, an affiliate of S8 Capital.
After receiving all regulatory approvals, the sale of Bridgestone’s Russian assets to S8 Capital has been completed. Bridgestone Europe NV/SA has transferred its tyre manufacturing facility in Ulyanovsk and sales and marketing office in Moscow to the investment company. Thus ends a relationship with Russia that began in 1998.
With the official opening of its GBK-200 facility in Nizhnekamsk, within Russia’s Tatarstan region, Nizhnekamskneftekhim has completed an upgrade of its halobutyl rubber (HBR) production capabilities that increase annual capacity by a third, to 200,000 tonnes. The Sibur Holding subsidiary thus has the world’s largest capacity for halobutyl rubber, and Sibur now accounts for a quarter of global butyl and halobutyl rubber production.
The former Continental tyre factory in Kaluga, Russia is taking on the Gislaved name and will operate under the management of Cordiant Joint Stock Company. Of the three brands the previous owner produced within the Kaluga plant, Gislaved is the only one for which S8 Capital gained usage rights when acquiring Continental’s Russian assets.
The war in Ukraine and the cost of energy plus general price inflation have replaced covid-19 as the principal threats to growth in trailer demand. Inflation rose to 10 per cent but is now moderating. Interest rates however are still relatively high but not increasing. That’s the view of analysts at Clear International who have published their first report on the Western Europe heavy trailer market since May 2022.
Tyres produced in the former Michelin plant in Davydovo near Moscow will soon be known under different names. Russian automotive site autopotok.io reports that new owner, Power International Tires, will produce tyres under the Farlight and Selna brands.
Vladimir Barvinok, who was previously general director of Continental Tires Rus, is Ikon Tyres’ new director of product development. He joined Ikon Tyres on 25 September 2023 as head of the company’s new Product Development functional area, which includes product portfolio management, technical regulation and certification, innovation, as well as research and development.
As the war in Ukraine continues, so do the Russian Army’s tyre problems. We have previously reported on the observations of military analysts that the Russian military has been let down by the combination of low-quality and very old tyres. More recently – and bizarrely – we learnt that presumably end-of-life tyres were being used as defensive camouflage for Russian air force jets. Now, the problem is just lack of supply.
According to Andrey Pantyukhov, who until last year headed the Russia and Asia business area for Nokian Tyres, tyres made in the Finnish firm’s former plant in Russia are, technically speaking, “exactly the same” as those produced under Nokian Tyres ownership. Pantyukhov, now chief executive officer of Tatneft-owned business Ikon Tyres, claims “the only difference is the name.”
It appears that car tyres have been drafted into a protective role for Russia’s air force. Military aviation blog The Aviationist reports that “something interesting is emerging” from satellite imagery of Russia’s Engels-2 military airbase in Saratov Oblast, around 450 miles from the Ukrainian border. Satellite pictures show tyres placed on the wings and part of the upper fuselage of at least one Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber.
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Stephen Goodchild / Tyre Industry Publications Ltd