Duratread and DRC, who have been cooperating on sales and marketing projects since 2006, have announced the launch of a new expanded range of tyres coming from Vietnam. The innovative range of products were unveiled at the Latin Tyre Expo from 23-25 July 2014 in Panama City, Panama.
Vietnamese tyre maker Casumina reports the official inauguration of its new all-steel truck radial plant on 19 April. The 70,000 square metre factory, located in Tân Uyên (Binh Duong Province), northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, will hold a 350,000 tyre per annum capacity in its initial project phase, with capacity rising to 600,000 units a year by the end of 2015 with phase two. The final project phase, which will take place from late 2015 through to 2017, will lift annual capacity to one million tyres. A total of 1,200 new jobs will be created through the factory project.
Sailun’s Vietnam factory, its first manufacturing facility outside China, is now fully online having opened officially opened on 30 November. The factory is currently expected to supply 7.8 million tyres annually to the Middle East, South East Asia and South America, employing 850 people.
Groundbreaking has taken place at the site of the future Casumina radial plant in Vietnam’s Binh Doung Province; on the morning of 16 February the company, Southern Rubber Industry Joint Stock Company chairman and CEO Nguyen Ngoc Tuan presided over a ceremony marking the start of construction work at the 12 hectare site. Stage one work is expected to be completed next year and will give the plant an initial capacity of 350,000 tyres per annum. Completion of stage two is planned for late 2015 and will increase capacity to 600,000 tyres, while stage three, scheduled for completion in 2017, will give the plant a 1,000,000 piece annual capacity. Total investment in the plant amounts to VND 3,380 billion (£101 million).
The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) reports that Q1 2012 Production Growth is expected to marginally increase by 0.3 per cent. During 2011ANRPC's total production rose 6.7 per cent to 10.127 million tons, faster than the 6.4 per cent rate expected until a month ago. The upward revision results from a better-than-expected output from Vietnam for the year. The country produced 811,600 tons of NR in 2011 as against 780,000 tons as anticipated earlier and 751,700 tons produced in the year before.
Continental Tyre Group has appointed Louise Franklin as its new Conti360° network manager. Franklin, 28, joins Continental with sales and marketing experience from her previous role as sales and marketing manager for Ardmore Language Schools.
Vietnam’s Southern Rubber Industry Joint Stock Company, or Casumina, has reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a US partner and will erect a new passenger car tyre factory. Work on the new plant should begin before the end of the year and the project’s stated total cost is VND3.7 trillion (around £112 million), including an investment of some £19 million from the US partner. The factory is expected to enter operation late in 2012 and have an annual output of 1.5 million tyres per annum. Two thirds of the new factory’s output is said to be earmarked for the US market; other named export markets are Canada and Australia.
The ‘Green Wave’ tree planting campaign surged around the world on May 22, and Yokohama Rubber reports that staff at 23 of its Japanese and international locations took part in events planned for the day. The company planted trees at seven domestic locations plus at facilities in the US, Vietnam, planting a total of 13,008 trees. Watering and care activities were performed at a further 14 sites where trees have already been planted.
On September 1 the management and staff of Kumho Tire Inc., along with important customers and partners, celebrated the company’s fiftieth anniversary at its headquarters in Seoul and its parent facility in Gwangju. “We look back with pride over the past fifty years and the successful development of Kumho Tires and based upon this look positively towards the future and the and the successful accomplishment of the next fifty years,” Kumho Tires CEO stated Kim Jong-Ho during the celebrations at the Gwangju facility. He thanked all employees for their loyalty to Kumho Tires during both good and bad times.
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has reported that 10 stowaways have been found trying to enter the UK in a lorry load of tyres heading for Basildon, Essex. The men, who were from a number of countries including Vietnam, Iran and Iraq, were sniffed out at Calais ferry port by the UK Border Agency (new window) body detection dog, 'Buddy' on 26 July. Border officers removed the would-be illegal immigrants from the lorry and handed them over to French authorities.
Bridgestone Corporation subsidiary Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (BSAP) has established a new tyre sales company for the Vietnamese market. Based in Ho Chi Minh City, the new company is named Bridgestone Tire Sales Vietnam Limited Liability Company (BSTVN) and is 95 per cent BSAP owned. The remaining five per cent ownership is held by Mitsubishi Corporation. Established with a capital of US$700,000, BSTVN employs 18 staff and is headed up by Tetsuro Chiba.
Michelin has appointed freight forwarding and supply chain management service provide Damco as its logistics and customs clearance provider in Vietnam. Under the three-year contract, Damco will handle Michelin’s exports from Thailand into Vietnam, inland transportation, cross-docking and distribution to customers within Vietnam. Damco will also manage warehouse operations for Michelin in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The new logistics set up will enable Michelin to distribute directly to almost 100 dealers across the country.
Staff at a Kwik-Fit centre in York recently discovered they had been working under a cannabis growing factory. Unbeknownst to them 387 cannabis plants with a street value of up to £46,000 had been growing in the space above the branch in York. According to a report in the Yorkshire Post, workers only made the surprising discovery when water leaked through the ceiling and they went up to investigate the damage. The news made the papers today (29 January) after Vietnamese illegal immigrant Duc Van Tran, an illegal immigrant from Vietnam admitted conspiracy to produce cannabis in a case at Leeds Crown Court. Tran has been jailed for 20 months.
Even as the debt-laden Kumho Asiana Group continues with its overall corporate restructuring plan, more details are starting to emerge about the fate of its Kumho Tire Co. unit. Both Kumho Tire and sister unit Kumho Industrial have entered a debt “work-out” program with creditors, and the “majority” of those creditors have agreed to freeze debt repayments for three months to allow the companies “time to carry out a planned restructuring programme.”
Vietnam Business Finance News has reported the opening of Michelin operations in Vietnam. The website states the French tyre major is establishing a presence within the country in order to take advantage of Vietnam’s rapidly increasing demand for radials.
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.