Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) has presented the “next evolution” of its proprietary Advanced 4D Nano Design materials development technology. The manufacturer of the Falken and (outside Europe) Dunlop tyre brands also reports it is utilising supercomputer technology to accelerate its work on materials simulation.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) is working to achieve carbon neutrality in its tyre manufacturing processes by 2050, and as part of these efforts recently began examining the possibility of utilising hydrogen energy within its major tyre factories in Japan. In order to “participate more actively in efforts to overcome the challenges involved in bringing about the hydrogen economy while also exchanging useful information with other companies and organisations,” SRI has joined the Japan Hydrogen Association.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) has announced the next evolution of Sensing Core, and says this latest update to its tyre sensing technology is “revolutionary”. In addition to tyre pressure, tyre load and load conditions, Sensing Core can now detect tyre wear.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries has inaugurated a winter tyre test facility at its Nayoro Tire Proving Ground on the northern island of Hokkaido, one of its main development sites for winter tyres. The 3,000 square metre Nayoro Indoor ICE Field – NICE for short – is one of the largest indoor on-ice tyre testing facilities in Japan.
Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (Pty) Ltd (SRSA), manufacturer of the Dunlop, Sumitomo and Falken tyre brands for the African continent, has announced the appointment of Lubin Ozoux as its new CEO and Executive Director of SRSA effective 1 January 2021. Ozoux will take over the role from outgoing CEO, Riaz Haffejee who has led the company for the past eight years. Haffejee will remain with the company until the 31 January 2021 to “ensure a smooth transition”.
Sumitomo Rubber North America is set to increase prices the price of Falken and Ohtsu branded passenger, light truck and medium truck tyres in the US and Canada on as well as implementing inline adjustments on a per size basis.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries has been working together with Japan’s Gunma University since last year to develop a system that remotely monitors tyre pressure in driverless vehicles. The tyre maker reports that, having created a system that works with Level 4 autonomous vehicles, it conducted a successful proof-of-concept test of this new system on public roads on 12 November.
Shares in Japanese firms hit a 30-year high after Joe Biden was named as the president-elect of the US in a phenomenon being called the “Biden bounce”. Tokyo’s Nikkei index rose 2.6 per cent when the market opened on 9 November. It closed up 2.1 per cent at a level not seen since 1991.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which is active in Europe with its Falken brand, has published third-quarter results which show that group-wide sales fell by 16.1 per cent in the first nine months of the current year, while at the same time earnings evaporated to only a third of the previous year’s figure.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) shares that a settlement has been reached in its patent infringement lawsuit against Timsum Rubber Tire (Weihai). SRI, which manufactures Dunlop tyres in certain regions outside Europe, filed a lawsuit with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court in response to unauthorised use of the Dunlop Geomax MX52 motocross tyre tread pattern.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI), manufacturer of the Falken tyre brand, recently began proof-of-concept testing for a new kind of tyre pressure management solutions service that remotely monitors tyre pressure and temperature. Through this testing project, SRI will evaluate the service’s efficacy in supporting safer driving, specifically its effectiveness in reducing maintenance time and workload and preventing operator error. SRI says the project contributes towards its “ultimate aim” of establishing a business model that “helps to enhance the safety and economy of driving.”
The coronavirus pandemic has put many visits to dream destinations on hold, but Falken Tyres is using its social media feeds to provide some vicarious thrills. The Sumitomo tyre brand’s new ‘Pass the Wheel’ campaign comprises three beautifully shot videos to provide a virtual road trip along some of Europe’s most beautiful roads and passes. The videos show the drive from Zell am See in Austria, across Switzerland, Italy and France, and into Monaco. The campaign trailer has already clocked up 1.7 million views on Falken’s YouTube Channel.
Over the last five years of data collection for the Tyres & Accessories’ ranking of the leading tyre manufacturers, a few trends can be observed – see accompanying graphs for more details. Firstly, it is easy to see that there are a few separate groupings of rival companies within the top ten. In our first chart, we can see that Continental has continued to progress in narrowing the tyre sales gap with Goodyear, partially because Goodyear has yet to regain the level of sales achieved in 2015, despite improved results on its half-decade low in 2017. Tyrepress noted in 2018 that based on tyre volumes, Conti looked likely to overtake Goodyear in light vehicle (passenger car and light truck) tyre volumes, showing how it has gained ground on the previous ‘Big Three’. Regardless of their order, it has been appropriate to talk of a global Big Four tyre manufacturers for a few years.
Tyrepress has published its 2020 ranking of the world’s top tyre manufacturers. Our ranking lists the top 20 tyre makers ordered by turnover from tyres in the previous calendar year. For example, Continental turned over nearly 45 billion euros in 2019, but 26.4 per cent of this was from its tyre divisions, making it the fourth largest tyre manufacturer in the world with 11.7 billion euros. The ranking presents a baseline for discussing the relative positions of the largest global players in tyre production. In 2019, we noted that Bridgestone had opened up a gap at the top of our ranking, around 2.65 billion euros ahead of second-placed Michelin in tyre turnover. This year, the French giant has reduced this gap to just over half a billion euros, reflecting its most recent acquisitions.
European lockdowns have caused sever interruptions to many in the tyre industry. But as the continent’s businesses enter a new phase of reopening, it is important to understand how this can be achieved while minimising the associated risks. Due to the different national timelines involved in this process, UK businesses may look to mainland countries a little further along this journey to see how they are proceeding. Tyres & Accessories spoke to the COO and president of Falken Tyre Europe, Markus Bögner, about how the Offenbach, Germany based company – part of Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) – has weathered lockdown, and is now beginning to “see positive changes” in key European markets.
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.
Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Source: Sumitomo Rubber Industries
Falken
Tyrepress
Falken