Truck Tyres
Goodyear Dunlop has been given planning permission for a new retread facility. The announcement signals the move of the truck tyre retread facility from its existing location to a newly refurbished building at the south end of the company’s Bushbury, Wolverhampton, plant.
(Akron/Tire Review) Workers at Cooper Tire & Rubber’s Texarkana, Arkansas, tyre plant remained on strike today, as talks between the tyre maker and United Steelworkers of America (USWA) negotiators are said to be continuing. USWA represented employees walked off the job 12 March when their contract with Cooper, which had been extended from an earlier 6 March deadline, finally expired.
(Akron/Tire Review) Continental is set to launch three new General brand truck tyres at the Mid-America Trucking show between 31 March and 2 April in Louisville, Kentucky. According to CTNA, the launch will help commemorate the 90th anniversary of the General brand. No further details about the new tyres were provided by CTNA.
Penske Truck Leasing has named The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company as 2004 Tire Supplier of the Year. Goodyear supplies Penske with a variety of truck tyres, including replacement and retreaded. In 2004, Penske extended a primary supplier agreement with Goodyear until at least 2008.
Goodyear Dunlop Tyres UK Limited has announced the appointment of Clive Powell as director, commercial business unit, headquartered in Birmingham, West Midlands. Mr Powell joins the UK organisation from his current position as sales director, Truck Tyres Europe. The new commercial business unit director will be responsible for the truck and bus tyre business, including the development of the TruckForce service network in the UK. Mr Powell’s predecessor, Wim Reijmerink, left the organisation to pursue other interests, the company said.
Richard Johnson, managing director, UK Operations stated: “Across Europe, Clive has played a major role in driving the development of our ‘best in class’ support services such as FleetOnlineSolutions, RoadsideAssistanceServices and TruckForce. We are confident that Clive can accelerate the successful implementation of these services in the UK to reaffirm our leading position in the truck and bus tyre market.”
Michelin will not buy the whole Trenco Egyptian conglomerate, as some new sources had reported. According to an article in French newspaper, Les Echos, Michelin was likely to buy the conglomerate for $10 million, despite its daily losses of $40,000 and debts of $200 million. Deutsche Bank analysts contacted Michelin and report that the company denied being interested in the whole conglomerate, but only in the Nisr tyre brand. Nisr is much smaller in comparison, producing only 30,000 tyres each year. Egypt is the 5th largest North African market with an annual volume of 3 million passenger tyres and 700,000 truck tyres. This is an attractive market for Michelin which aims to expand its production capacity in this region, the analysts believe.
In India tyre prices are “tumbling” in response to the government’s decision to cut excise tax by eight per cent, local news sources have reported. According to India’s Economic Times, MRF and Ceat have announced 4 – 6 per cent price cuts, while others such as Apollo, Goodyear and Birla Tyres are likely to follow the same lead. This means that typical non-radial bus and truck tyres are 1000 rupees cheaper.
When you have a tyre market that grows by ten per cent each year, as in the case of Russia, an impact on the retreading market is inevitable. Although retreads still don’t have the same status as they do in Western Europe, the eleven companies that are currently doing business in this market are looking forward to a bright future. The growing new tyre market has led to the appearance of a number of different retread companies, including Bandag, Kraiburg and Ellerbrock. Smaller companies like Elgitread from India and ITG from Italy have also shown interest in the Russian market.
The European market doesn’t appear to hold a bright future for retreaded passenger car tyres. Just recently one of the biggest manufacturers of the tyres, Reiff Reifen + Autotechnik GmbH, withdrew from this segment. Nokian Tyres has also taken a similar decision: the Finnish tyre manufacturer has sold its passenger car retreading plant to a Swedish company even though its retreading business was recently brought together under the roof of a new “profit centre”.
If the 8th Moscow Tires & Rubber show is anything to go by, the Russian tyre market looks set to continue its development as a growth market. While the show was marked by growing interest from exhibitors and visitors, the market itself has produced some generally optimistic data and has seen perceptions of the manufacturers’ market approaches improve. All this suggests that the Russian market will continue to develop into a very interesting tyre market, with a strong growth potential.
A changing market environment and growing consumer demand in Russia has encouraged Matador to target the increasing opportunities offered by the market. The Slovakian tyre manufacturer is preparing for the future by initiating a new brand strategy and further investments into its Russian joint venture in Omsk. 2005 is an appropriate year for Matador to contemplate future development of its tyre business, as it will celebrate two important anniversaries during the coming months. In May the company will celebrate its 10th year at the Russian factory Omskshina, followed by its 100th anniversary in the autumn.
The German retreading industry has, for some time now, been concerned about when and how the ECE regulations 108 (passenger tyres) and 109 (truck tyres) would eventually be transferred into mandatory national law. In fact concerns over how the regulations will affect the German retreading market have been lingering since they were put into place in Geneva in June 1998.
Bridgestone Retread Systems is relatively new to the retreading market, having entered the sector in the past year through a joint venture between Bridgestone and Marangoni/Ellerbrock. The idea behind the new company was to bring together and direct Bridgestone’s retreading activities in Europe from a central point; hence its location in Brussels. The joint venture with Marangoni Tread and its German subsidiary, Ellerbrock Tyre Retreading Technology, allows the Japanese manufacturer to cast its retreading net even further; and it can now offer its partners the support and assistance to gain the ECE 109 and the ISO 9001-2000 certifications.
While some newspapers reported analysts’ disappointment with Michelin’s weaker than expected fourth quarter sales, analysts from France, Morgan Stanley as well as Deutsche Bank do not see too much reason for concern. Although volumes were slightly negative, the positive effect of better product mix and prices has continued to be demonstrated from quarter to quarter. Obviously Michelin increased market share with winter tyres and truck tyres in the OE business. Analysts are also highlighting the fact that Michelin is to invest 500 million euros in its polish plant and is therefore ready for further expansion in Eastern Europe.
Toyo Tire and Continental Tire North America have recalled 24 and 50 truck tyres respectively from a “targeted batch.” The announcements follow Yokohama’s decision to recall 69 of its commercial tyres that were produced at the same GTY plant in Mount Vernon Illinois. The total number of recalled products now stands at 143.
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