Continental is planning to open a Middle East regional office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The joint venture project with the company’s previous distributor in Saudi Arabia, Almutlak Trade & Industries, will support growing demand for Continental’s products and services in the kingdom, according to the company.
Pirelli has opened a fourth branch of its tyre boutique retail concept P Zero World on a third continent. The store follows previous openings in Los Angeles, Munich and Monte-Carlo. More than 60 supercars belonging to local collectors formed a parade through the city to mark the Dubai opening. The following day more than 200 cars took to the track at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi for the P Zero Experience: Pirelli’s track day event.
Davanti has exhibited its extended range of tyres at Automechanika Dubai, reporting positive reactions to its expansion strategy across Europe and Asia. The brand included its recently launched all-terrain tyre, the Terratoura, explaining that a full range of tyres is a prerequisite for building Davanti’s profile in new markets. The company also mentioned the value of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) accreditation in the Middle East – a measure Davanti has taken with its whole range, where competitors have chosen to accredit only the most popular sizes.
Having announced that tyres sold on the internal market would be chipped and labelled with a QR code back in 2014, the United Arab Emirates’ authorities have announced plans to roll out tyre chipping by the end of 2017.
Lewis Hamilton won the last grand prix run on the current Pirelli Formula One tyre range in Abu Dhabi, but was pipped to the drivers’ championship by Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who finished second, using identical two-stop strategies. The tyre supplier called the Yas Marina-hosted grand prix “the last race in the era of deliberately high tyre degradation”, with its latest, larger range of P Zero slicks and Cinturato wets unveiled in the emirate before the weekend’s racing began. The final development test for the 2017 will begin on Tuesday, 29 November, with Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari appearing on track together in modified 2015 mule cars.
Al Saeedi Group has held a meeting with its Camso, formerly Camoplast Solideal, tyre customers. The event was chaired by Ferreol Tournebize, Camso zone director for Middle East Africa; Majid Tamoutounour, business development manager Middle East Africa; and Anish Malattiri, director, Al Saeedi Group.
2015’s Formula One calendar concludes at Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi; a venue with which Pirelli is very familiar. The F1 tyre supplier has used the venue for testing, including the world’s first wet-weather test run at night, and a pre-season launch. The smooth asphalt means the softest tyres in the range will be supplied, a combination previously employed at the slowest grand prix, Monaco, and at four other race weekends. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is held from late afternoon into the evening, so track temperatures tend to drop over the course of the race, meaning that the pattern of tyre behaviour is different to normal: another complex variable for teams to factor into their strategy calculations. Pirelli expects a performance gap between the two compounds of 1.0-1.2 seconds per lap.
As of May 2015 Marangoni Spa entered into a partnership deal with Al Shirawi Enterprises that sees the latter become exclusive distributor for the Marangoni brand of industrial tyres in Dubai and the wider United Arab Emirates (UAE). During his recent visit to Dubai, Adam Dudas-Smith, export area manager for Marangoni Industrial Tyres, announced that Al Shirawi Enterprises had shown a big commitment to the Marangoni brand since taking on a non-exclusive dealership role for Dubai and UAE.
Here in Europe and in other major markets such as Japan, Korea and the US tyre labelling has been the subject of intense discussion for some time. However, if the local news reports are anything to go by, the UAE appears to be taking the concept to the next level with the introduction of smart RFID “tags” which feature both an RFID chip and visual label including a QR code.
A new report published by Bharrat Books predicts that the Saudi Arabian tyre market revenues will grow 12 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during the period between 2013 and 2018.
Singapore’s Stamford Tyres has appointed UAE automobile distributor Al Habtoor Motors as the official dealer and distributor of its Firenza car tyre brand. The Firenza brand is already established throughout Europe and the UK and this latest association is designed to build a sales profile in the Middle East for the future.
Nearly year after the UAE banned the sale of used tyres, local news sources report that an import ban has been added to measures designed to curb the part worn trade. The new law is part of a tyre management plan implemented by the Emirates Standardisation and Metrology Authority (Esma), which will implement the ban on the import of used tyres in September. In the meantime, the existing federal law is “being openly flouted by traders and workshops in Sharjah and Dubai”, according to Gulf News.
Eldan Recycling A/S, Faaborg has sold a complete cable granulation and separation plant to Viakon Conductores Monterrey, Mexico. The system will turn mixed cables and wire into pure copper and plastic at approx. 1000 kg per production hour.
Pirelli has announced the tyre nominations for the final three Grands Prix of the 2012 Formula One season. All three races – in Abu Dhabi, USA and Brazil – will feature the P Zero White medium compound tyre; the visit to the UAE will also feature the soft P Zero Yellow, while at F1’s first visit to Austin, Texas and the season-ending meeting at Interlagos Pirelli will include its P Zero Silver hard compound.
Infinity Tyres has announced the launch of a new retail programme to reward top sellers of the brand on the UK market. The scheme has been introduced in conjunction with the brand’s authorised UK distributor Bond International. The company explains that the new reward programme is based on a simple structure: the more tyres purchased, the more points gathered. Infinity says its reward packages are “simply outstanding”.
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