Truck Tyres
Michelin Americas Small Tires (MAST) has announced an increase in price in the US replacement market for passenger and light truck tyres. Michelin, Uniroyal and BFGoodrich brands will all rise by 5%, along with private and associate brands.
Michelin has released its financial results for the first half of the year, confirming the disappointing message given earlier. Turnover was 7,377 m Euro (first half of 1999: 6,488) and operating profit 540 m Euro (596). Increased raw material costs and a weak Euro were blamed as contributing factors, but Michelin says that the results do not fully reflect progress made in increasing competitiveness.
Due to the low demand for truck tyres, Continental is to introduce short time working at three factories in Austria, Belgium and Stöcken, in Germany. The 400-strong workforce at the Stöcken plant has been divided into two, with only one half working at a time on a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off basis.
Michelin has long been established as a leader in the European truck tyre retreading market with its famous Remix process, but now the French company has turned its attentions to the US retreading market, where it is causing quite a stir. The size of the market is enormous; according to the Tire Retread Information Bureau, in 1999 there were 18.1 million large truck retreads sold, compared with 15.7 million new truck tyres, and Michelin has announced its intention to double its market share, from 10.2% to 24.6% by the year 2002. The company has done this not through using the Remix process, but by cold cure retreading, forming Michelin Retread Technologies Inc. (MRTI) and signing up licensees. By March, Michelin had 37 such franchisees signed up and expects this figure to increase to fifty by the year end. As a comparison, Goodyear has some 167 truck tyre retreading partners in North America. Michelin’s cold cure retreading process is called Recamic and it uses rubber produced by Michelin. Like Remix, Recamic is promoted as a premium product. For those retreading partners who may be looking for something a little cheaper, Michelin produces Newlife, a less expensive alternative. The article in May’s TYRES & ACCESSORIES examines Michelin’s commitment to retreading, both in Europe and outside, and looks at the retread market itself.
Goodyear and Cooper both plan price rises for car and light truck tyres in the United States. Price increases of around 5% are rumoured, mirroring Michelin’s proposed increases for the fourth quarter.
Ulrich Ossowski, Director, Commercial Products for Bridgestone/Firestone Germany has been made responsible for sales and marketing of total truck tyre aftermarket and original equipment business in Germany
Earlier in the year we reported that truck tyre production was to stop at the Fort Dunlop factory in Birmingham, UK. There was another devastating blow for the ageing plant when it was announced that car and van tyre production will be phased out by the end of the year. This will lead to 600 job losses, on top of the 650 redundancies earlier in the year. When all the losses have been implemented, the workforce at Fort Dunlop will have fallen from 1,700 to 500 inside twelve months. The latest move is as a result of Goodyear’s review of operations, following the joint venture with Sumitomo and has been blamed on over-production, the strength of Sterling and a reduction in domestic car production. Dunlop brand car and van tyres will continue to be manufactured at the company’s more modern factory in Washington in the North East of England as well as other European factories in the Goodyear group. Production at Washington will increase from six days a week to seven. Around 12,600 car tyres are manufactured daily at the plant. With truck, car and van tyre production gone from the Fort, that only leaves motorsports tyres, of which a mere 250,000 are made a year. The article in TYRES & ACCESSORIES 6/2000 outlines local reaction to the news and ends with the possibility of further bad news, as Goodyear is reported as saying that “substantial” further restructuring is still needed.
Nokian Tyres has released figures for the first nine months of the year. Sales rose 29.9% to 258.6 million Euro (199 m for the same period 1999) and operating profit fell to 11.9 million Euro (18.4 m). Net profit was 2.7 million Euro (9.9 m).
Finnish tyre manufacturer Nokian has confirmed that the company intends to produce commercial tyres in the USA as soon as possible. The first products will be forest tyres, followed by industrial tyres. A spokesman for Nokian said that it had not yet been decided whether the company would build its own factory in the USA, whether there would be some kind of joint venture co-operation, or whether tyres would be manufactured in an off-take agreement. The Finnish company has been active in the US and Canadian markets for some years.
The slogan was “Service Makes The Difference”. Consultants MMS GmbH, together with the German dealer association BRV (which claims to be the “centre of competence”), organised this interesting seminar. Regrettably, representatives from only about 30 independent tyre dealers attended, with the majority of the 150 delegates coming from the tyre industry and their equities. Hubert Hannezo, Michelin’s Worldwide Marketing Manager for passenger car and light truck tyres, made a very informative speech and explained to the audience what is going on, for example, in the USA and what might become popular here very soon, and why. A totally new form of service is developing through the internet, and specialists from Continental enlarged on this in detail. Larry C. Morgan, a big tyre dealer from the USA, explained his growth philosophy. He is confident that his group will sell around ten million tyres a year from 2005 on. One of his statements was “Bigger is better, only if big is better” and “If it is to be, it is up to me”. Finally, keynote speaker Sir Tom Farmer used the opportunity to explain again what Kwik-Fit is, how it has grown, and for what it stands. One criticism of the seminar might be that there was no opportunity to ask questions, nor to initiate any discussion.
Bridgestone/Firestone Europe (BFE) has revealed details of a new, ultra-low aspect tyre for trucks and city buses. Called GMD (Greatec Mega Drive) the tyre replaces a pair of dual-mounted drive axle tyres with a single unit. Advantages claimed by BFE include lighter weight, lower rolling resistance and increased carrying capacity. Sizes are 435/45 R22.5 (for city buses) and 495/45 R22.5 (for trucks). Bus tyres will be commercially available early next year and the larger GMD truck tyres in 2002.
In 1994 Michelin presented the prototype 445/45 R 19.5 XTA truck tyre. Bridgestone has just announced in Tokyo the introduction of such an ultra low ratio tyre under the name “GREATEC”. The tyre is available in sizes 495/45 R 22.5 for trucks and 435/45 R 22.5 for buses.
In a telephone conference on 28th July, following an earlier profits warning and subsequent fall in Michelin shares of around 10%, the management tried to explain the reasons for the profits warning. June was a bad month but there is still hope that the company will achieve an EBIT comparable to that of the first half of 1999. Exact figures will not be available until September. The problems are in the USA, where it was not possible to obtain better prices for truck tyres. On the other hand, the increase in raw materials prices (rubber, oil, carbon black), forecast to be about 3%, will now, it seems, be more like 4 or 5%.
Goodyear has got on well with their “integrated truck service concept”, as stated by the group. Whereas, by the end of last year, 65 partners have been using this Goodyear service for commercialising truck tyres, the figure has currently raised up to 90, which means another step closer to the target of an area-wide service network in Germany. As estimated by Frank Titz, Manager Sales & Marketing Truck Tires at Goodyear Germany, around 150 service points will be necessary, of which 120 are already covered by their 90 partners. Because of continuing merging activities within the forwarding business, foreign markets have to be considered, too. “All big freight vehicle fleets are on the road all over Europe, so that service may not end at the frontiers”, Titz is explaining the motivation for the European-wide extension of the concept, named “Truck Force”. “By the end of 2001, we want to be represented at all main international traffic arteries, either from Portugal/Spain to Scandinavia and from France versus Eastern Europe.” Advantages are not only suggested for trade, but for Goodyear itself, of course. In fact, according to Titz, in Germany more than 50 per cent of all new truck tyres have been sold so far by their partners.
Following price increases of between 3 and 5% by Cooper, Goodyear, Pirelli and Yokohama in the US market, Michelin is increasing its prices of passenger car and light truck tyres by 5%. Tyre manufacturers need a minimum price increase of 3% merely to compensate for the 8% increase in raw material costs (rubber, oil, carbon black).
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