Truck Tyres
Visitors to Michelin’s stand at the IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Germany, which opens to the public today, will be greeted by a whole new range of tyres from the French manufacturer. The world premier of the X Line Energy range is being held at the show; Michelin says the launch of the new range comes at a “special time” as it coincides with the introduction of the European tyre labelling programme.
Dutch industrial, off-the-road and commercial tyre manufacturer, Magna Tyres Group, has launched a renewed website at www.magnatyres.com. Employing the business’s new corporate imagery, the Magna Tyres website provides online visitors with a visual presentation of its whole product line, including off-the-road tyres, industrial tyres and truck tyres.
Goodyear has launched an information campaign about winter road safety aimed at commercial vehicle owners and fleets. The manufacturer says it has identified a common misconception, with many commercial vehicle operators assuming that winter tyres are only suitable for snow and ice. Of course, readers of Tyrepress.com will be well aware that winter tyres are developed not only for extreme weather conditions; they also perform better than other tyres at temperatures below 7°C, because of optimised designs and softer, high-silica compounds that don’t harden like regular driving compounds.
Beijing based Best Choice International Trade Co., Ltd. launched the Mazzini radial truck tyre brand in August. Labelling tests have already taken place and the 315/80 R22.5 MZ266 product is said to be rated C in fuel efficiency and D in wet grip.
Kirkby Tyres’ philosophy of stocking large quantities of high quality on and off-road highway tyres and wheels to cover every possible application for both OE and replacement markets has reportedly earned the company increased business. The exclusive importer of Double Coin tyres, Kirkby reports that it has sold over a million tyres to the replacement market to date.
Established in 2002 and with the backing of the highly-regarded Mesnac Company Limited, Sailun reports that it is gaining a “fast-growing reputation” for its radial truck tyre range. According to the company, its development has been fuelled by quality standards enhanced by the research, design and technical testing facilities occupied by over 300 technical Sailun engineers and staff in the National Economic and Technological Development Zone in Qingdao.
While no-one in the tyre industry claims to have bypassed the combined effects of the credit crunch, euro-crisis and the consequent recession(s), it is fair to say that these economic phenomena have had particularly marked effects on the commercial vehicle tyre market. First of all, as a direct result of customer demand scaling back, truck makers cut down on vehicle production, with the tyre manufacturers responsible for supplying these OEMs forced to follow suit. As fleets responded to falling demand for their services and extended the life of their tyres as far as possible (as well laying up trailers and cannibalising tyres whenever they could), what began as a demand shock in the OE side of the business developed into a replacement slump as well.
With European tyre labelling set to become mandatory on truck tyres in a matter of weeks, Tyres & Accessories published some 20 pages of in-depth coverage on what this all means for the market in last month’s August edition. Nevertheless we barely scratched the surface and one has to admit that the majority of tyre labelling reporting leans towards the passenger car side of things.
Production at Michelin’s Ballymena plant has passed the 30 million mark; management and staff at the factory marked this milestone on 30 August. The milestone also coincided with the start of production of a new size in the X MultiWay 3D range.
The Warrior brand is set to do battle with in the Chinese market, and perhaps will be pitted against premium brands. On 28 August the joint venture operation run by Double Coin Holdings, parent company Shanghai Huayi (Group) and Michelin unveiled its new passenger car range. Double Coin Group (Anhui) Warrior Tires began manufacturing Warrior branded tyres at its Wuwei, Anhui province factory in March and the new facility is expected to have a six million tyre a year capacity by the end of 2012. Output capacity should reach 15 million a year by 2015.
Family-run steel haulage company Randall Barber Transport reports that it is saving an average of eight pence per kilometre per tyre with Continental, with each tyre travelling up to 10,000km further compared with the fleet’s previous brand of tyres. The company also say it is enjoying the benefits of technical advice from the manufacturer’s Technical Services team. The firm originally selected Continental as preferred tyre supplier in 2009.
In its 2011 Annual Report, Goodyear India Limited shares that it intends to phase out production of cross-ply medium commercial truck tyres and transfer the freed-up capacity to the manufacture of agricultural tyres. “In the farm segment, growing levels of farm mechanisation and subsequent growth in all agriculture related industries should provide your company with attractive growth prospects,” stated the Annual Report, adding that the majority of agricultural products currently sold by Goodyear Indian are cross-ply construction.
On 31 August, Roger Stansbie, currently director of truck tyre technologies for Continental Tire the Americas’ Commercial Vehicle Tire business unit, will retire. Stansbie intends to return to the UK following his retirement and will be succeeded in his US-based role by Czech Republic national Libor Heger, who has been employed by Continental AG and its associated companies for the last 13 years.
The history of the EU tyre label is closely connected with the passenger car tyre segment. The criteria that led to standardised test procedures for fuel efficiency/rolling resistance, wet grip and external rolling noise primarily focused on the passenger car segment, and summer passenger car tyres in particular. Despite this, the label doesn’t just apply to C1, or passenger car tyres that are produced from 1 July 2012 (DOT 2712), but also to light commercial vehicle tyres (C2) and truck tyres (C3). Retreaded tyres, which account for a large percentage of Europe’s truck tyre market, are one of a number of exemptions to the labelling legislation.
With just three months to go before the mandatory implementation of labelling in November 2012, there are still many questions to answer about exactly who will be enforcing the law and what the penalties will be.
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