Winter Tyres
Bridgestone is preparing to launch its first all weather tyre, the A001, in Northern Europe ahead of the coming winter season. This new tyre, the company says, is intended to meet the safety and performance demands of the region’s fast changing weather conditions.
Cooper Tire has introduced two new ranges of high performance tyres intended for winter conditions, the WM-SA2 and WM-ST3. The manufacturer reports these newest members of Cooper’s high-performance line-up benefit from the latest state-of-the-art production technology and have been designed to offer firm footing on snow and slush.
Cooper Tire & Rubber has released its latest North American market winter tyre. Called the Weather-Master WSC (Winter and Snow Confidence), Cooper says the new tyre represents the "next generation of tyres designed to deliver superior winter performance." The manufacturer says the Weather-Master WSC's was developed for drivers of newer SUVs, CUVs, smaller pickups and some passenger car applications looking for improved traction on slushy and snow-covered winter roads.It adds that the tyre's directional design, combined with a high silica tread compound, is ideally suited for the toughest winter conditions. The range is initially offered in ten T-rated sizes for 17 and 18-inch diameter rim sizes.
In 2010 Michelin launched the fourth generation of its Alpin winter tyre into the replacement market. The Alpin A4, released in sizes to fit a wide range of vehicles from city cars through to MPVs and saloons, is intended for European markets where winter roads are generally wet – around 80 per cent of the time – and less often icy or snow-covered. In other words, the latest Alpin is a tyre specifically designed for the winter conditions we experience in spades.
We have no way of knowing what kind of weather winter has in store for us, yet should we again experience prolonged snow and ice conditions, Maxxis brings reassuring news – the tyre maker reports that its winter range has proved its reliability throughout Europe where, in many countries, motorists are required by law to switch to cold weather tyres at a specified time. Available in a raft of popular sizes, Maxxis says its winter tyres are “engineered to cope with extreme temperatures and slippery surfaces and feature an advanced, specially formulated soft tread compound which disperses water and snow to deliver improved grip.”
The frigid winter we all experienced was good news for Deldo Autobanden NV. The Antwerp, Belgium based wholesaler was inundated with requests from unprepared dealers for cold weather tyres, and even in these balmy summer months the memory of Jack Frost is helping propel sales. “We are already having a great winter season,” confirms Deldo’s international sales and marketing manager, Rutger Veerman. “As of June 1 we had already sold 70 per cent of all our winter tyres. This is the first time we have seen people ordering this early in the season; they are doing so because the last winter season was of course cold and people had difficulties finding enough tyres. People are therefore ordering as early as possible to secure some of their winter business.”
The National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) and its wholesale arm, the Tyre Wholesalers Group (TWG) have warned that "substantial" price rises are imminent. The core raw material price increase reasons for the shortage are nothing new, but the fact that a number of tyre manufacturers closed factories in recent years means there is now insufficient capacity to make up the shortfalls. In addition the fact that last winter was particularly severe across much of northern Europe led to unprecedented demand for winter tyres. With this year's winter selling season due to begin shortly, manufacturers are replenishing stocks of winter tyres in preparation.
Kenda Rubber has confirmed a passenger car tyre factory alongside its existing Yun-Lin plant in Taiwan is “on target” to enter production in the second quarter of 2011 and reach a daily capacity of approximately 5,000 tyres in 2012. According to company sales and marketing representative, Eric Yang, “The factory will be adjacent to an existing factory Kenda owns in Taiwan. The radial addition will allow Kenda to make products that will satisfy mainly the domestic market along with countries that carry tariffs or duties on Chinese-made tyres. The line of tyres that will be produced from the new factory has not been fully determined, but the KR 17 Kenetica (which is sold mostly in the United States) along with the new KR 28 Klever A/T (to debut in the last quarter of 2010 in the US), which will most likely be patterns we will first introduce the new factory.
Bridgestone is referring to the launch of the Firestone Winterhawk 2 EVO and Winterhawk 2V EVO tyre ranges as the completion of “major upgrade” to the brand’s winter tyre line-up. According to the manufacturer, the two new tyres incorporate the latest winter technological developments with EVO compound, a combination that reportedly enables it to set “new benchmarks in the standard segment”. Bridgestone states that the two Winterhawk products deliver best-in-class performance on wet, snow and dry.
Cooper Avon’s Reifen 2010 location next to the main entrance to Hall Three has helped give the company access to attendees making “good genuine enquiries,” according to European marketing communications manager, Sarah McRoberts. She said Cooper has enjoyed “easy access” to both developed and emerging markets, with visitors from “Eastern Europe, India, China and the Middle East” taking time to speak with the company. Therefore Cooper Avon sees Reifen as a “truly international fair” for the industry, yielding enough business opportunities to make it the “only real” European tyre focused event it attends.
It is just over a year since Dutch manufacturer Vredestein was acquired by Apollo Tyres and adopted a greater focus towards high performance tyres and products for top-end vehicles, and at the Reifen 2010 exhibition in Essen, Germany the company presented the first major addition its product portfolio since these significant events took place. Known as the Wintrac Nextreme, the high performance cold weather tyre is the second winter tyre ever to be developed in collaboration with Italian design house Giugiaro, whom Vredestein has worked together with for more than a decade.
Apollo Tyres has officially launched its namesake brand in the European market, and announced plans to bring its Vredestein brand to its home country. The launch came just ahead of this week’s Reifen Essen, where Apollo is holding its first major display. Apollo said it plans to offers its flagship brand in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and the UK this year, and will open new European markets in coming years. "Our current range, catering to the small and mid-size segment, will meet the growing demand in Europe. We will be available only at established retailers. We will not walk the wholesale route," Apollo managing director Neeraj Kanwar said.
During the 2009-10 financial year sales at Apollo Tyres’ operation in India, the Netherlands and South Africa increased 63 per cent to Rs 81.2 billion (₤1.2 billion), with operating profit growing from Rs 4.4 billion to Rs 11.9 billion (₤175.0 million) and net profit leaping 364 per cent to Rs 6.5 billion (₤95.6 million) – a result company chairman Onkar S Kanwar described as “an impressive performance by the company.
Toyo Tire & Rubber has announced a return to the black with a net income of 2,957 million yen (₤21.5 million) for the 2009 fiscal year. The Japanese company, which made a 10,722 million yen loss during the 2008 financial year, earned a profit in the 12 months to March 31, 2010 despite a 12.4 per cent decline in net sales to 287,726 million yen (₤2.1 billion). Operating income during the recent financial year amounted to 8,664 million yen (₤62.9 million). The company’s tyre business unit posted net sales of 214,291 million yen (₤1.6 billion), accounting for 74.5 per cent of total net sales and a 11.5 per cent drop from 2008 sales. Ordinary income for the 2009 financial year was 6,933 million yen (₤50.3 million); a year earlier an ordinary loss of 1,395 million yen was recorded.
Michelin has launched three new ranges of tyres designed and homologated to fit the new Porsche Cayenne. While Michelin’s continuing branding and product development pursuit of ecological savings seems to chime oddly with the SUV, Porsche’s latest strategy, which it calls “Porsche Intelligent Performance”, involves manufacturing vehicles that deliver enhanced performance while also consuming less fuel and are therefore more efficient and less polluting. This strategy, the French giant explains, “corresponds perfectly with Michelin’s strategy of designing and producing tyres that provide the most balanced performance.” Michelin says its tyres, “especially those that will be fitted on the new Porsche Cayenne, are designed for superior performance in terms of safety-enhancing grip as well as fuel-efficiency and total mileage”.
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