In what is proving to be a bad year for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., the company has announced that it is one of several tyre producers that are under investigation from Japan’s Fair Trade Commission for alleged price rigging.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that it reached an agreement to license ExxonMobil Chemical Company, a division of Exxon Mobil Corporation of the United States, technology in connection with the Yokohama Advanced Liner (YAL), a new patented inner liner for automotive tyres. In addition, Yokohama and ExxonMobil Chemical are combining their respective expertise in the field to improve and advance the performance of YAL. The agreement also grants ExxonMobil Chemical rights to commercialize and globally market YAL related materials in the future.
The global tyre market may be dominated by a handful of large players, with a number of “second row” players, followed by the rest of the world. The gap between the primary three and the fourth and fifth place manufacturers is considerable, and between the fourth and fifth and the rest of the market there is a considerable gap. However, the impact of the rest of the world on the market conditions enjoyed by the top five players is quite considerable. Tyre quality used to be such that there was a clear and distinct difference between the market leading brands of Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Pirelli and Continental, (and we must include Cooper here) and those of any of the other manufacturers. The reality though has been changing and increasingly brands from smaller manufacturers such as Toyo, Yokohama, Hankook, Kumho and latterly Federal have been increasing their market share by improving the quality of their products and building their brand image – often in the high performance sector.
Today, the market dominance of the key players is under pressure. Profitability is being eroded across tyre ranges by the increasing availability of low cost budget tyre brands. The commodity tyre requires no brand loyalty and sells on price alone. Thus, the high volume market necessarily targeted by the budget tyre manufacturers has largely become their domain. It has in essence been abandoned by the big brands. Yes, if you need a 155/13 from Michelin, or Goodyear you can still get it, but increasingly that tyre is being manufactured in a low labour cost centre in a joint venture with another tyre manufacturer who is also feeding his own budget tyres into the same market at a fraction of the price of the main brand names. If a big player is using a JV, or an offtake agreement in the Far East to fill commodity demands, he has surely all but abandoned that market. Indeed, if there is so little margin left in commodity tyres, if it were not for market shares, corporate egos, overall economies of scale and public relations where is the logic in continuing to offer branded commodity tyres?
The “great white hope” for the leading players, who have lost margins to the budget brands, is to develop a technologically advanced premium sector where quality and premium branding help create an exclusive market offering higher margins to the manufacturer, the wholesaler and the retailer. The high performance market offers just such an opportunity and the leading manufacturers are concentrating their efforts on the UHP sector in spades. Every new tyre launch is about UHP. Summer tyres, SUV tyres, winter tyres, all have an emphasis on the UHP market. Repeatedly the message is that the sector is growing in Western Europe and that it is destined to expand rapidly when Central and Eastern Europe follows the Western trend. However, it is not just a trend in Europe; it also follows in the USA – though perhaps surprisingly performance tyres account for only 13 per cent of the US market, whilst they amount to some 54 per cent of the European market according to Michelin; in Russia as an emerging market and in the Indian sub-continent – long ignored by the main brands as too poor an economy or too competitive a market. Here too the main brands are setting up camp and preparing to take market share from the domestic producers with high performance tyres. Pirelli being one of the first to see the potential and react with an improved sales operation.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced its consolidated results for fiscal 2004, ended March 31, 2004. Owing in part to favorable export sales, net sales increased 0.3%, to 401,718 million yen. However, operating income declined 9.1%, to 21,073 million yen, owing mainly to an increase in the volume of tire exports and higher prices for shipping and raw materials, such as natural rubber. Ordinary income decreased 8.2%, to 17,258 million yen. On the other hand, a tax reduction helped boost net income 1.8%, to 10,331 million yen.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., at the Meeting of its Board of Directors, decided the following changes in directorships and the introduction of the position of Corporate Officers, to become effective upon approval at the General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on June 29, 2004.
Promoted Director and Corporate Officer (Current position):
Yasuo Tominaga, Chairman and Representative Director(President and Representative Director)
Tadanobu Nagumo, President and Representative Director (Executive Director)
Keigo Ueda, Director and Senior Managing Corporate Officer(Managing Director)
Takashi Sugimoto, Director and Senior Managing Corporate Officer (Managing Director)
Toshihiko Shiraki, Managing Corporate Officer (Director)
Chinese media reports that Japanese tyre makers are poised to boost their production capacities in China. Bridgestone Corp. plans to launch a new plant in the eastern city of Wuxi in September and will also triple the monthly output capacity of an existing plant for truck and bus tyres in Shenyang, to 90,000 units. The moves will cost Bridgestone a total of around 20 billion yen (100 million pounds). Yokohama Rubber Co. is due to double the annual production capacity of its passenger car tyre plant in Hangzhou, to 1.4 million units. Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. will launch production in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, in April. Demand for passenger vehicle tyres in China grew to around 60 million units in 2003 and is expected to show an annual rise of 20 per cent in the future, demand for truck and bus tires, 80 million units last year, is forecast to grow even faster at over 40 per cent.
Yokohama Rubber Co. established N.V. Yokohama Belgium S.A. in Antwerp to reinforce passenger car tyre marketing in that nation and Luxembourg.
Yokohama Rubber Ltd. plans to invest 5.8 billion yen on a new truck and bus radial tyre factory in Thailand according to Hisakuni Yamashita, president of Yokohama Tyre Manufacturing (Thailand). The Thai unit was set up in January and will commence production in April 2005, with initial annual capacity of 315,000 tires and a final target of 600,000 tires in the second phase. Japan’s Yokohama Rubber owns 95 per cent of the Thai unit while the remaining 5 per cent is owned by T Siam Commercial Ltd., the Yokohama tyre distributor in Thailand.
Yokohama Rubber Co aims to open a new plant in Thailand, planning to roll out tyres in April 2005. It plans to set up a company there in January to make radial tyres for trucks and buses. The company plans to spend 5.5 billion yen to build a plant in Rayong that will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 tyres in its initial phase. In the second phase annual production is scheduled to double to 600,000. Its main product will be 22.5-inch tyres, and they will be exported to markets around the world. Yokohama Rubber plans to acquire a site of up to 225,000 square metres in Rayong’s Amata City industrial park for the new plant. The plant will employ a “small-batch” production system, which is designed to maximises cost efficiency even on a relatively small production scale, Yokohama Rubber said. The company adds that it may build more tyre plants in Thailand in the future.
India’s outsourcing boom is likely to have little impact on the tyre industry that has huge potential. The tyre industry needs to source rubber at global prices. Availability of rubber at par with international majors like Continental, Pirelli or Yokohama would lead to development of India as a base for manufacturing, according to Anil Sampat, an industry analyst and former rubber industry insider. India’s largest player MRF is still one fifth in size of global companies. The only way the Indian tyre industry can grow and reach global scale is to attract investments from international tyre majors as the industry is capital intensive. The small size of Indian companies is a source of worry, says Sampat. With tyre industry expected to grow only by 2 per cent, “real growth can come only when India offers world class manufacturing facilities for global players,” he points out.
Approximately 90,000 visitors were expected to the 37th SEMA exhibition in Las Vegas according to organiser Specialty Equipment Market Association, without exception specialised public. The annual fair, that usually takes place in November, is comparable with the German Automechanika. For the past decade the tyre sector has been a very important part of the Show. All the tyre manufacturers with interest in the American tyre market are present in Las Vegas. Visitors however shouldn’t expect the presentation of groundbreaking new products. On the contrary: Las Vegas is a suitable place, at which business relations between customers and suppliers can be established or deepened. Despite all the economic difficulties the world’s gambling capital, in the desert of Nevada, is booming. And “9/11” seems to have passed this city without trace, a city which still builds one fancy hotel next to another. The Hilton hotel in Las Vegas it is adjacent to the fairground, once the largest hotel in the world with approximately 3,500 rooms, is nowadays less significant. Others have 4,000, 5,000 or even more rooms. Reportedly a hotel with 8,000 rooms is to be built shortly. At present the city waits for the opening of another luxury hotel, which is to dominate not only by size, but also by luxury. The opening is due in two years. To be on the safe side, the planned French name for the hotel was axed, because it is feared that too many patriotic Americans would avoid such a hotel, after the Gauls dared not to take part in the Iraqi war.
The tyre exhibition in Las Vegas is surely still a meeting of trade specialists. One enters the halls, looks to the left and to the right into the vast array of different exhibition booths. Nevertheless, any visitor has toured every booth within a short time. Although tyre manufacturers such as Bridgestone, Goodyear, Michelin, Cooper, Pirelli, Hankook, Kumho, Yokohama and others are present, the important decisions are not taken at the show. The pricipal discussions take place in the hotels. There the life pulsates. There the receptions take place. There, tyre dealers are invited to meet with their suppliers to specify commercial objectives for the coming year. The large tyre manufacturers not only offer product, but also various kinds of marketing and sales promotion programs. It is the tyre manufacturers aim to bring partners into line in order to improve their new tyre business by at least 50 per cent.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced its consolidated results for the first half of fiscal 2004. The high value of the yen and sluggishness in the market for replacement tyres in Japan led to an overall decline in Yokohama’s tyre sales, but sales of hydraulic hoses and golf products increased. Sales of the tyre group amounted to 960.3 million Euro, a 0.8 per cent slide, and operating income decreased 27.5 per cent, to 15.1 million Euro. Demand in the Japanese market fell considerably, as both unit- and value-based sales of replacement tyres contracted. Sales of tyres on an original equipment basis were basically unchanged. Reflecting the current operating environment and these results, in fiscal 2004 Yokohama forecasts consolidated net sales of 3.02 billion Euro, a 0.1 per cent decrease, and net income of 75.6 million Euro, a 1.4 per cent decrease.
Yokohama is set to invest 5.5 billion Yen (US$ 50.8 million) to build a new factory in Thailand, producing steel radials for trucks and buses. The new factory – Yokohama’s second for CV tyres outside Japan (the first is in the USA) – will initially produce 300,000 tyres annually, with this figure doubling to 600,000 units by 2007. The tyres will be marketed world-wide.
Yokohama has announced that it is to spend US$26 million to double capacity at its Chinese factory to 1.4 million tyres a year by the end of 2004. Originally the timetable for the expansion was the end of 2006, but increased demand has prompted Yokohama to bring the plan forward.
Michelin ranks highest in original equipment (OE) tyre satisfaction for the third consecutive year, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2003 Germany Original Equipment Tyre Customer Satisfaction Index Study released today.
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