Truck Tyres
(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear’s North American tyre operations have made a number of personnel changes. The moves, said Goodyear, were made with “an emphasis on promoting our primary consumer tyre brands and further evolving our market-driven focus.”
(Akron/Tire Review) Truck fleets and independent truckers can now receive a free copy of the Tire Retread Information Bureau’s “Don’t Thump ‘Em, Pump ‘Em” poster.
The poster promotes the use of tire gauges as a way to keep truck tyres properly maintained. The 17.5×23-inch poster is printed in full colour on heavy paper and is suitable for framing, TRIB said.
Hankook Tire Co., Ltd have released details of a safety related defect present in certain Aurora brand medium duty truck tyres. The affected tyres were manufactured between March 1 and September 5, 2006 at Hankook’s factory in Jiangsu, China, and the company has issued a recall of the 7,890 affected tyres.
Hankook reports that the tyres in question meet official standards but did not completely meet the company’s own endurance criteria. Therefore it was judged that the tyre may become prematurely unserviceable if exposed to extreme conditions of use or abuse.
Recalled tyres will be replaced free of charge until June 30, 2007, at which date a partial credit dependant on remaining tread depth will be given. Further details of the recall can be found on Hankook’s Aurora brand website www.auroratireusa.com.
Last year, IMI the maker of truck balancing powder, Equal, launched a product aimed at the passenger car market. XactBalance, distributed in the UK by Rema-Tip Top, is a new style of dynamic balancing weight and is aimed at premium level fitments.
The last year saw the gap between the premium and budget CV tyre markets widen as cost conscious fleet managers have opted for lower priced imported tyres. Continental, as a manufacturer just outside the top three in terms of UK commercial vehicle replacement tyre market share, must be examining the market very closely – something that made executives’ recent market research presentation all the more interesting. UK commercial vehicle brand manager, Jill Rodgers, and truck and remould brand manager, Mike Nyren presented the data.
Only a day after reports slamming the endemic practice of re-selling worn out tyres in South Africa comes news of a potential remedy to this life threatening state of affairs.
After several attempts they have now finally succeeded: Bandag Corporation heir, Martin Carver, has sold his and his mother’s majority stake in the company to Japanese tyre giant Bridgestone. It was probably high time for the American retreading specialist to make such a move, as in recent years they have been operating in a seemingly unfavourable environment. If Bridgestone had also chosen to go down the same path as Goodyear and Michelin, establishing its own equity retreading businesses, Bandag’s market environment could have been set to become even more unfavourable.
Subscribers can read the entire article and download it as a PDF by clicking the more link.
After several attempts they have now finally succeeded: Bandag Corporation heir, Martin Carver, has sold his and his mother’s majority stake in the company to Japanese tyre giant Bridgestone. It was probably high time for the American retreading specialist to make such a move, as in recent years they have been operating in a seemingly unfavourable environment. If Bridgestone had also chosen to go down the same path as Goodyear and Michelin, establishing its own equity retreading businesses, Bandag’s market environment could have been set to become even more unfavourable.
Subscribers can read the entire article and download it as a PDF by clicking the more link.
Spanish driver Antonio Albacete has taken out the FIA European Truck Racing Championship for 2006 in his Goodyear fitted Cepasa team MAN. Albacete finished second place at Le Mans, the final race of the season, securing himself a championship winning 346 points from the season’s eight qualifying races.
A report in the regional newspaper Express & Star revealed that thieves broke into the Lodge Tyres depot in Pleck Road, Walsall at the weekend and stole more than 200 tyres, valued at £50,000. According to joint manager Phil Williams, thieves made off with 129 truck tyres and 92 van tyres. The thieves disabled the depot’s alarm and forced open roller shutter doors before loading the tyres on to a lorry and driving off. Not surprisingly, Lodge Tyres’ business was badly affected by the loss of stock.
(Akron/Tire Review) No one doubts that 2006 has been a very tough year for tyre dealers and manufacturers alike. The RMA revealed yesterday just how tough the year will finish: tyre shipments will be down 4.5 per cent overall compared to the record-setting results of 2005. RMA said the decrease in tire shipments “reflects the overall slowdown in the U.S. economy during 2006,” driven by a shrinking GDP, higher energy costs, and a declining housing market. OE and replacement segments combined in all categories shows shipments will be down some 14 million units to a total of 306 million tyres.
The tyre market in Poland is growing continuously. In 2005 about 7.67 million passenger car tyres were sold (+4 per cent on 2004) and this figure is expected to increase by another 7 to 8 per cent during the year, according to a report published by the German governmental institute BFAI. Consequently, this year about 8.2 to 8.3 million PC tyres will be sold on the replacement market in Poland. “Long gone are the times when everybody drove the same tyre all the time. The development in different market segments has been quite heterogenous,” the report points out. High speed and therefore high performance tyres have experienced the strongest growth rates in the recent past. The Polish low budget segment in turn is constantly losing market share.
Serbia’s second largest tyre manufacturer, Trayal Corp., is soon to be sold and therefore privatised. According to reports, the privatisation agency in Serbia has announced a public tender to bid for the traditional state-owned company. The Bulgarian power supplier Brikel EAD has now made the highest offer and will soon start to negotiate the details of the deal with the agency, local media sources wrote. The bid was £8.2 million for a majority share plus modernisation investments of up to £16.9 million.
Dunlop India Ltd is reportedly taking steps to enter the OTR tyre market by cooperating with Bharat Earth Movers Ltd and Coal India Ltd (CIL). Kolokata Newsline reports that the companies have decided to invest in tyre-makers to ward off a supply crisis in India. BEML has already tied-up with CIL for providing 1 billion rupees (£11.4 million) each to Apollo Tyres and JK Tyres as a soft loan so that they manufacture dumper-truck tyres. According to the Kolkata Newsline, CIL needs to replace at least 2,696 tyres in 2006-07 and a total of 19,300 tyres by 2011-2012.
Fresh from the success of pre-selling over 1 million winter tyres by August this year, Deldo has announced plans to further its interaction with the UK market, arranging to meet clients at next May’s Brityrex trade show. Tyres & Accessories contacted Deldo marketing manager, Rutger Veerman, and also learnt that the company and its key Chinese manufacturing partner, South China Tire & Rubber Company Ltd (Guangzhou) is investing in improving product production.
To get an idea of the scale of Deldo’s operation you need only look at the company’s annual turnover. In recent years Deldo have achieved an annual growth rate of approximately 10 per cent. Wanli remains Deldo’s best selling budget product, with a range of 160 (in 2007) passenger, light truck, SUV, 4×4 and truck tyres. Deldo is likely to sell 2 million Wanli products this year.
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.
