On 11 January 2021 Jiangsu Province Department of Commerce approved Jiangsu General Science Technology Co. Ltd’s (GS Tire) US$300 million investment in a new tyre factory in Cambodia. Company stock market filings had previously described that factory as a $204 million investment, which suggests the scope of the project has increased significantly.
As 2021 drew to a close, Far Eastern tyre retail specialist business B-Quik opened its 200th store and hit an interim growth target. The opening of the new location at Maxxbox Lippo Village brought the chain’s Indonesian total to 9 branches and 200 across Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.
2021 has been a year of significant strategic developments for the fast-growing Linglong Tire business. On 10 June 2021, Linglong announced plans to invest in a huge tyre manufacturing facility in Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province, China, which will output a wide range of products including 15.2 million high-performance radial tyres and 500,000 retreaded tyres. That three-phrase project will see construction commence in April 2022 and will be completed in March 2028.
Singapore has taken a hard line against Covid-19 and continues to enforce international travel restrictions. In order to ensure it can welcome visitors to Tyrexpo Asia 2022, organiser Tarsus Group has decided to hold the event in Bangkok instead. Thailand will allow quarantine-free entry for fully vaccinated travellers from low-risk countries from the beginning of November 2021 with no need to quarantine.
Bridgestone Corporation announced today its intention to withdraw from the conveyor belt business as part of a restructuring of its diversified products business. The company will gradually reduce production and sales volume in order to “minimise the impact to the operations of its customers and suppliers” and will completely withdraw from the business by the end of 2024.
Truck and bus tyre production at Bridgestone’s factory in Thailand will result in lower CO2 emissions in future thanks to the installation of a solar power generator at the site. Bridgestone Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (BTMT) has brought the first phase of its solar power generation project into operation at the Chonburi facility, with 2,160 solar panels installed on roofing delivering a total capacity of 1 MWp.
The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) has determined that passenger vehicle and light truck (PLT) tyres imported from Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand are being sold in the USA at prices that materially injure the local tyre industry. In addition, the U.S. Department of Commerce has determined that Vietnam’s government is subsidising PLT tyres that are then sold in the USA at “less than fair value.”
On 28 May 2021 growing Thai tyre retail chain, B-Quik opened two new centres on the Tiwanon road in north Bangkok. The addition of the two centres, which are spaced 8 kilometres apart, follows the opening of two more Thai branches at the start of April 2021.
Yokohama Mold Co., Ltd. (YMC), the tyre mould production subsidiary of Yokohama Rubber, is expanding production capacity at its Yokohama Mold (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (YMTC) facility in order to strengthen the company’s supply chain in the ASEAN region. Construction of new facilities at the Thailand site began in January and are scheduled to be completed at the end of this year.
Anti-dumping duties as high as 98% may be applied to passenger vehicle and light truck tyres entering the USA from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on 30 December that it will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of these products.
ZC Rubber, the world’s 9th largest tyre manufacturer, has unveiled large billboards in four famous in the United States, Australia, Thailand and Germany.
The BITEC exhibition venue in Bangkok will host a Tyrexpo Asia event in Thailand from 2022. According to the event organisers, Tarsus Group, the idea is to keep running the existing Tyrexpo Asia Singapore exhibition during odd years and introduce the Bangkok edition during even years. As a result, there will be a Tyrexpo Asia event running annually. The inaugural Bangkok edition will be run 27-29 April 2022 roughly five months after Tyrexpo Asia Singapore, which is scheduled for 17-19 November 2021.
Thai tyre manufacturer Otani Radial Co. Ltd. has recalled 138 Otani OH-306 425/65R-22.5 truck tyres with DOT code 0320 after its local distributor, Foreign Tire Sales Inc (FTS) noticed a problem on 22 October 2020.
Following the news that the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) reported a year-on-year decline of 38.76 per cent in vehicle production over the past nine months, Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at data and analytics company GlobalData, says: “Thailand, a key automotive production hub in Asia, is struggling hard to recover from the slumped vehicle production output. Vehicle production, both for domestic sales and exports, has been witnessing a downward trend since 2019.
Marubeni is well-known for its range of tyre-related investment interests. While the conglomerate began in Japan, recent additions in Russia and US-based Tyrata demonstrate the diversity of its tyre-related portfolio.
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B-Quik; Marubeni