Truck Tyres
Michelin is to announce plans to incorporate Transense TPMS technology into its next generation of truck tyres at a press conference later this week. The news broke after a report in the Independent suggested that UK company Transense’s battery-less design would be used. There were also suggestions from industry insiders that Michelin may go further and announce the use of the system in car tyres as well.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has announced the forthcoming closure of its tyre manufacturing facility in Tyler, Texas, as part of the company’s previously announced strategy to exit certain segments of the private label tyre business. When it made the private label announcement in June, Goodyear said that the decision would require a corresponding reduction in North American Tire’s manufacturing capacity and that plant performance, capabilities, cost savings opportunity and the focus on serving NAT customers would dictate capacity reduction.
According to German media reports, Continental is reportedly considering paying 150 million euros for Matador’s “Rubber” business unit, which mainly produces tyres. As this unit produces moulds and tyre construction machines in larger volumes than Conti does at its Hanover-Stoecken plant, workers have raised numerous objections against the move. Hanover-Stoecken was recently the subject of job cuts in its passenger car department.
Referring to the future relationship between Continental and Matador, company spokesman Hannes Boekhoff confirmed discussions are taking place: “The parties are negotiating about a possible extension of their strategic partnership to include the passenger car tyre range. The negotiations are not final yet.” Further details are not yet known and so far Matador has not released any information on the subject.
Exactly a year after their victory in the Pharaoh’s Rally with a Team Overlock Mercedes-Benz Unimog U500, Pirelli’s PS22 standard truck tyres have repeated their performance with another win in the Egyptian marathon. Fitted to an Iveco Eurotrakker driven by specialist Giacomo Vismara, the normal production Pirelli PS22s, are mounted on Italian vehicles in size 14.00 R20.
Bridgestone Corporation announced today that it will raise prices on 1 February 2007 for tyres, tubes and flaps sold in the replacement market in Japan. Prices for winter tyres will be increased on 1 April 2007. Specific price increases include 5.5 per cent for passenger car and light truck tyres, 8 per cent for truck and bus tyres, 10 per cent for construction vehicle tyres, 5.5 per cent for motorcycle tyres (excluding certain products) and 8 per cent for other kinds of tyres, and for tubes and flaps (excluding those for motorcycles).
As a major UK Tyre Wholesaler, R H Claydon prides itself on its comprehensive range of quality products to meet the requirements of a demanding industry, both user and service provider alike. The company’s truck market offering is no exception, with the prime offering being Matador, manufactured in the Slovak Republic, and which has been recognised for over 100 years as a major producer of quality products.
Truck tyres; if they’re not turning, they’re not earning. Not only is this maxim at the front of every good haulier’s mind, but it also serves as a mission statement for the Toyo development engineers. Toyo has engineered a range that like all good business tools are cost friendly, easy to work with and low maintenance.
Kirkby Tyres has been involved in the wholesaling and export of truck tyres for close on half a century, and has built a reputation for the quality of goods supplied, dependable delivery and economic pricing. Kirkby has also become known as a reliable supplier of hard to get items, such as compactor tyres, mining tyres and military tyres. More recently, however, the company has made a name as a major supplier of popular sizes and types to the OE and replacement markets, holding massive stocks of major brands and imported makes, mainly from China.
The fact that Singaporean wholesaler, Stamford Tyres, operates both a service centre chain (“Mega Mart“) as well as a tyre retail chain (“Tyre Mart“) in South East Asia and China shows that the people’s republic is more than just a production base for company. Instead the Chinese market is increasingly become a focus for Stamford’s retail operations.
The answer needed to win Michelin’s ‘Truck Challenge’ competition was that 28.69 litres of fuel were saved by using Michelin A2 Energy truck tyres on the 1,250 kilometre route between Clermont-Ferrand and Hanover. In case you are wondering what all this is about, two identical trucks left Michelin’s Ladoux research centre near Clermont-Ferrand on 25 September 2006 to travel to the IAA International Truck Show in Hanover, where they arrived the day after. They both carried the same amount of fuel and the same load, and travelled at a maximum speed of 90 km/h. According to the French manufacturer, the only difference was their tyres: one was fitted with Michelin E2+ tyres and the other with Michelin A2 Energy low rolling resistance tyres.
Hankook’s truck tyre division is probably the fastest growing part of the UK truck tyre market. According to Tyres & Accessories’ research, in just a few years the UK truck wing of the South Korean manufacturer has grown to the point that it controls between 6 and 8 per cent of the UK truck tyre replacement market. Of course the exact figure depends on who you ask and which figure you put on the total market size, but either way it is obviously an achievement. Now the company hopes to build on its recent successes by launching a new national breakdown network called Truck Masters.
For the Chinese Tire Group of Factories Ltd., Inc, the CITExpo is always is like a home match because it has distribution offices in Shanghai as well production facilities in Shandong province. On the other hand, the manufacturer of the Riverstone tyre brand sells about 100 per cent of its tyres on export markets, says sales representative Rebecca Zhang. Thus the Tire Group of Factories can also benefit from the increasing reputation of the CITExpo show among international visitors. However, the company didn’t present its products on a large scale during the show because it had booked only a very small cubicle. Two truck tyres and some posters would have been enough to do the job, those in charge at the Tire Group of Factories must have thought.
For a company like Shandong Linglong Rubber Co., Ltd. presence at the CITExpo is obligatory. In the past other major Chinese manufacturers like Giti Tire or Chengshan used the CITExpo for their purposes. This year Linglong was by far the biggest manufacturer exhibiting at the Shanghai tyre show with all the other tyre majors missing. For export manager Merry Wang this doens’t mean that Linglong has to act like its competitors. On the contrary: “We want to build a brand,” she says with self-confidence.
Chinese manufacturers want to and, in fact, already are benefiting from strong international demand for OTR tyres. One company that follows these lines very closely is the China Noble OTR Tyre Co., Ltd. When at the turn of the century it was becoming more evident that there was going to be a strong growth on the profitable OTR tyre market, Noble Tyre decided to jump on the bandwagon. The company’s co-founder Sky Zhuang said in an interview with Tyres & Accessories that this was the time when Noble decided to change its production plans. The company used to produce truck tyres and then changed over to the production of OTR tyres and thus invested considerable amounts of money from 2001 onwards.
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Kings Road Tyres is a leading truck tyre wholesaler, holding what is probably the largest range of tyres available in the UK and Ireland. KRT’s philosophy is to offer customers a choice of brands that cover the premium, mid-range, super budget and budget tyre sector. Brands extensively stocked include Bridgestone, Continental, Firestone, Kumho and the new Infinity range.
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