Toyo: Keep On Rolling
Truck tyres; if theyre not turning, theyre not earning. Not only is this maxim at the front of every good haulier’s mind, but it also serves as a mission statement for the Toyo development engineers. Toyo has engineered a range that like all good business tools are cost friendly, easy to work with and low maintenance.
Continue ReadingKirkby Tyres’ International Offering
Kirkby Tyres has been involved in the wholesaling and export of truck tyres for close on half a century, and has built a reputation for the quality of goods supplied, dependable delivery and economic pricing. Kirkby has also become known as a reliable supplier of hard to get items, such as compactor tyres, mining tyres and military tyres. More recently, however, the company has made a name as a major supplier of popular sizes and types to the OE and replacement markets, holding massive stocks of major brands and imported makes, mainly from China.
Continue ReadingGoodyear Seeking Truck-Driving Heroes
A North American search is on for unsung heroes of the highway - truck drivers who keep the nations economy moving and who come to the rescue of fellow motorists. Nominations for Goodyears 24th annual North America Highway Hero programme will be accepted up till 30 November 2006.
Continue ReadingMichelin Truck Challenge
The answer needed to win Michelin’s ‘Truck Challenge’ competition was that 28.69 litres of fuel were saved by using Michelin A2 Energy truck tyres on the 1,250 kilometre route between Clermont-Ferrand and Hanover. In case you are wondering what all this is about, two identical trucks left Michelin’s Ladoux research centre near Clermont-Ferrand on 25 September 2006 to travel to the IAA International Truck Show in Hanover, where they arrived the day after. They both carried the same amount of fuel and the same load, and travelled at a maximum speed of 90 km/h. According to the French manufacturer, the only difference was their tyres: one was fitted with Michelin E2+ tyres and the other with Michelin A2 Energy low rolling resistance tyres.
Continue ReadingCredential Launches £4 million Recycling Joint Venture
Newton Aycliffe-based Credential Environmental, a waste and tyre reprocessing specialist, has led a joint venture deal with global gas company BOC Gases and Toronto-based FieldTurf Inc, the world’s leading artificial sports surface manufacturer. The new venture, TyreGenics Ltd, will use a cryogenic process to produce large volumes of tyre ‘crumb’ from millions of waste tyres produced by Britain’s cars and commercial vehicles each year. The process involves freezing rubber using liquid nitrogen and shattering the frozen rubber into minute pieces. The first plant is expected to open in South Wales in spring 2007.
Continue ReadingHankook Launches Truck Master Service Programme
Hankook’s truck tyre division is probably the fastest growing part of the UK truck tyre market. According to Tyres & Accessories’ research, in just a few years the UK truck wing of the South Korean manufacturer has grown to the point that it controls between 6 and 8 per cent of the UK truck tyre replacement market. Of course the exact figure depends on who you ask and which figure you put on the total market size, but either way it is obviously an achievement. Now the company hopes to build on its recent successes by launching a new national breakdown network called Truck Masters.
Continue ReadingUSW to End Contract Extension With Goodyear
The United Steelworkers (USW) has advised Goodyear that it was giving the company the required 72-hour notice to terminate the extension of the parties labour contract. The contract expired on 22 July 2006, and both parties agreed to an extension that could be terminated with 72 hours notice. Some industry observers have interpreted this to be a precursor to industrial action. A possible strike would affect Goodyear’s 12 North American plants (eight tyre factories and four engineered products plants).
Continue ReadingTRIB Board Meeting Time Changes
(Akron/Tire Review) TRIB will hold its annual board of directors meeting during the upcoming SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The meeting will be held on Monday, 30 October, from 16:00 to 18:00 at Caesars Palace. TRIB notes that the exact room location for the meeting will be announced later. The time of the meeting has also changed from its previously announced time.
Continue ReadingYellow Sea to Launch PC Tyres in Europe
Up till now the Qingdao Yellow Sea Tyre Factory hasn’t sold its radial passenger car tyres on the European market. The company was founded in 1986 and currently produces about 1.5 million tyres, 600,000 of which are radial PC tyres. These tyres are imported, says sales and operation manager Tao Rung Wu. But because the company has not yet received an E-mark for its products, it has been impossible to export these products into Europe. This will change in the near future, Mr Tao asserts. In this context Yellow Sea Tyre is announcing the expansion of its production capacity from 600,000 radial PC tyres to about 1.5 million units from next March when they will also get their products E-marked. Right now the company has “very limited capacity”. It is not yet clear yet how this capacity increase might interfere with the limited number of radial PC tread patters (four) and dimensions between 13 and 16 inches.
Continue ReadingAllexim Takes Service Centre Concept to China
One trade company, which isn’t exactly a major market player but nevertheless has a long and successful history in China is the Alltyre Shanghai Trading Co., Ltd. which is owned by a German entrepreneur. The holding company is called Allexim Handel GmbH and is based in Hamburg, Germany. Currently, the company operates three tyre dealerships in Shanghai under the name Alltyre. In addition, there is a wholesaling business which mainly supplies car dealerships with tyres, says Johannes H. Muecke, whose family owns the business. In these three outlets Alltyre sells about 9,000 to 11,000 tyres per year, which is “a reasonably good figure” for Shanghai, Mr Muecke says.
Continue ReadingElgitread: Preparing for Market Breakthrough
It is taking quite a long time for those involved in the Chinese retreading markets to get up to speed in comparison with the rapid developments in the other tyre-related sectors. The first signs of developments can particulalry be found in the OTR tyre segment. Truck tyre retreading isn’t yet seen as a generally necessary way of saving money and energy. However, tread manufacturers such as Elgitread from India are preparing for a breakthrough in China. That’s why representatives have travelled to the far East to exhibit at the CITExpo year after year although their business in China remains relatively low-level. Elgitread has created a worldwide network of business partners over the past years including five equity production sites – although so far China is not counted among the production sites.
Continue ReadingWholesaler Establishes Chinese Retail Business
The fact that Singaporean wholesaler, Stamford Tyres, operates both a service centre chain (“Mega Mart“) as well as a tyre retail chain (“Tyre Mart“) in South East Asia and China shows that the people’s republic is more than just a production base for company. Instead the Chinese market is increasingly become a focus for Stamford’s retail operations.
Continue ReadingGoodtyre Presses Forward Into Europe
Although the domestic Chinese tyre market is growing at an enormous rate, export markets are also offering an ever more tempting business opportunity for tyre manufacturers from China. In light of major production over-capacities in particular in the PC tyre segment European and American tyre markets almost assure profitable and relatively easy growth perspectives to Chinese tyre companies. The Yinbao Tyre Group for example is one company that is currently adjusting its own growth strategy towards a more international standing. The company is based in the city of Shouguang in Shandong province. Export manager Sino He explains that the company, which was founded in 1994 has sold its truck, OTR and industrial tyres on the domestic market until very recently. It is offering the tyre brands Goodtyre, Yinbao and Huibao.
Continue ReadingEurotire Manufacturer Goes European
With a name like Eurotire it might sound surprising that Eurotire Inc has barely been present in the Western European market before now, despite having production capacity on the continent. However, Eurotire Inc. (which shouldn’t be mistaken for the Dutch tyre wholesaler Euro-Tyre) operates its trading operations from an office in Chicago (Illinois/USA), manufacturing its OTR tyres in a factory in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk. The company was founded in 2001 but didn’t sell its first OTR tyres with the Eurotire brand name until 2005.
Continue ReadingMichelin Looking to Cut Production Costs by 20 per cent
(Akron/Tire Review – FT) Groupe Michelin is aiming to lower its production costs in Europe and North America by an estimated 20 per cent as it clamps down on inefficient development and manufacturing processes ahead of next years expected sharp downturn in the global truck market.
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