Truck Tyres
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.
Visitors to the Kings Road Tyres (KRT) stand at Brityrex will be able to view a broad range of brands covering applications for truck, bus, agricultural, OTR and industrial fitments – a portfolio the company has built up on the back of four decades’ involvement in the wholesale sector and productive, long-term distribution relationships developed with some of the world’s leading tyre makers. KRT says it will use Brityrex as a focus to promote a number of its exclusive brands, including Matador and Aeolus truck tyres, the Taurus agricultural range and the latest AT/3 and S/T MAXX patterns in its Cooper 4×4 line-up. During the show the company will also launch a new, as yet undisclosed, agricultural tyre that will supplement its already extensive portfolio in this sector.
On 26 September, the US tariff on Chinese-manufactured consumer tyres is scheduled to end. On that day it’ll be exactly three years since a 35 per cent duty was slapped upon all such tyres imported from China; this was reduced to 30 per cent in 2010 and for the past 12 months US consumers have paid a 25 per cent duty on Chinese passenger car and light truck tyres. The tariff received a mixed welcome – the Tire Industry Association referred to it in 2009 as “a politically motivated decision that will end up costing more jobs than it saves” while the United Steelworkers union praised Barack Obama as being “a President with the guts to enforce trade laws.” Either way, in little over a month the tyre tariff will be history.
No, Continental’s Herbert Mensching and Dr. Frank Walloch cannot conceive that a tyre maker could solely focus its development on label-related areas just to achieve sales through high ratings. The two men, respectively managing director sales and marketing at Continental’s Commercial Vehicle Tires unit and director of product development for commercial vehicle tyres in the EMEA region, believe a one-sided preference for specific development priorities will evaporate after around nine months at the very latest, as professional truck tyre users are competent at evaluating these products. Instead of placing a focus on criteria such as wet braking or rolling resistance, what is of key importance for commercial vehicle tyres, most likely more than in the passenger car tyre segment, is balanced product development in which other criteria – such as mileage and retreadability – will rank high on the list of priorities.
Unlike the passenger car tyre side of the business, which had been established and built up over several years before GiTi opened up its UK operation, the truck tyre segment had to be established from virtually nothing. Now the company claims a unit market share that puts it close to third in the UK.
Regulation (EC) No 1222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the labelling of tyres with respect to fuel efficiency and other essential parameters – to give our new label legislation its full and proper name – comes into force in just a few months. The EU has agreed upon a system of rating tyres using three performance parameters, and almost every new passenger car, light commercial vehicle and truck tyre (C1, C2 and C3 tyres) sold in Europe will come with this rating. But even before its mandatory implementation, murmurs of label scepticism can be heard. Generally, these comments hinge on the label’s limitations, and whether these will hinder consumers from purchasing the tyre best suited to their needs.
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