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In September 2019, Tyrepress.com broke the news that Yokohama is set to buy the ex-Pirelli industrial tyre business Prometeon. Back then, we reported that the deal was at an advanced stage and could be completed before the end of 2019. That clearly didn’t happen, but the deal is still live and the latest news is that it is nearing completion, but now also involves Aeolus Tyres.
The Vipal agreement, the Dmack project, the political storms, the ever-changing retreading market. Vittorio and Giuseppe Marangoni, president and vice president of the Italian Marangoni Group, talk about these industry-related topics and more in an interview with Tyres & Accessories.
While presenting its nine-month 2018 results, Michelin has predicted a significant slowdown in passenger and truck tyre market conditions in the second half of the year. However, the well-known tyre manufacturer also predicted “sustained growth” in the speciality sector, which consists of OTR, two-wheel, aircraft and agricultural tyres.
With more low-cost Asian-produced imports entering key European markets than ever, many within the retreading and wider truck tyre industry are anxious to address what they see as a growing concern. For them there are several problems with the continuing influx of Chinese tyres, but two points are particularly key: the increasing cost difference and increased quality disparities seen in the market. Both undermine the retread market and even its long-term future. As far as retreaders are concerned, the problem is that good quality and environmentally sound retreads are being priced out of the market by cheap first-life truck tyres bought as “disposable” items at virtually cost-price levels. All this raises questions that impact the whole market: How bad is the situation now? How has it got to this stage? What is the impact on new truck tyres and retreads alike? Tyres & Accessories recently met with representatives of the Retread Manufacturers Association (RMA) as well as leading retread and new tyre manufacturers in order to find out more.
OK so the fact that China is the world’s largest tyre producer, the largest car maker, has the largest population and is likely to be the largest economy soon means that it is massively premature to write off the People’s Republic. Rapid growth and the huge scale of Brazil, Russia and India means these markets are still should be the focus of much attention. However, many international businesses have already latched onto this. So if everyone is competing for what they perceive as the same low-hanging fruit other opportunities could be going missing…or at least that is the question that is being raised in banking circles.
With the ink still drying on Apollo Tyre’s agreement to purchase Cooper Tire and Rubber, on 27 June Tyres & Accessories met with Apollo vice chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar at the company's new global marketing office in central London in order to get the inside line on the deal, the impending integration and the strategy behind the purchase.
In 2010, Apollo's owners, chairman Onkar Kanwar and vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar, told the world that the company was aiming to break into the global top 10…at least. At the time this announcement was made you could be forgiven for thinking such a proclamation was either an exercise in hyperbole or in corporate goal setting. And why not? There's nothing wrong with aiming high, as many of the world's fastest growing tyre companies are clearly doing. After all, as the saying goes, “he who aims at nothing hits it”.
But with all the speculation that surrounded the company's decision to engage in takeover talks with Cooper at the end of 2012, the fact that the deal has now been agreed arguably isn't as much of a surprise as the speed with which the top 10 goal has been attained. Early indications suggest that the amalgamated Apollo/Cooper will be the seventh largest tyre company on earth. So what’s next? The exclusive club that is dominated and fiercely defended by the big five? Or, as is more likely, a period of integration and consolidation while the dust settles?
Visit a tyre plant anywhere in the world, and the chance of encountering equipment manufactured by the VMI Group is very high; the Dutch company, which began business in 1945 repairing war-damaged industrial equipment, is today easily one of the top producers of machinery for the global rubber industry. These days equipment produced for the tyre industry accounts for around 80 per cent of VMI’s global sales and the company has been a dominant force in tyre building machinery since its development of the single-stage process in the 1970s. This landmark concept brought about a revolution in production process quality, and in the years since its release VMI has repeatedly shown its strengths as an industry innovator; the latest developments from VMI, and those just around the corner, suggest the company’s tradition of innovation still remains very strong.
The maxim “location, location, location” is often quoted in relation to real estate, however it can equally apply to the success of a business. One company aware of this is Tire Group International, Inc. The Miami, Florida based wholesaler is active throughout the world, yet its location gives it particular strength in the Latin America and Caribbean regions. In recent times TGI has increased its focus on developing this geographic advantage to its full potential.
Pirelli Tire achieved a high 7.7 per cent operating profit margin in first half 2009. The figures come despite a negative raw material impact (-19 million euros) and despite a 16 per cent drop of volumes and a low capacity utilisation rate of 75 per cent.
Pirelli Tyre CEO, Dr Francesco Gori made the remarks at a presentation given during the Frankfurt motor show. And the good news left analysts predicting the company’s financials should improve significantly in the coming quarters due to an estimated 100 million euros positive raw material effect; a recovery of volumes with capacity utilisation reaching 90-95 per cent; and “the full payback of restructuring measures.”
Reporting on the presentations, Deutsche Bank analysts observed that Pirelli’s tyre business should benefit from the Brazilian government’s recent decision to impose import tariffs Chinese made tyres. The tariffs of US$0.75/kg are seen a significant plus for the company, in a market where the group already enjoys 30 per cent market share and “above average operating profit margin.”
Chinese imports are said to represent approximately 10 per cent of the Brazilian market.
Although the Indian tyre market is mainly characterised by its strong growth, it still is a market that is relatively self-sufficient. India still imports tyres, and the volume of imports is forever growing. Nevertheless, the import market still accounts for less than three per cent of the total, although decreasing tariffs and duties over the coming years will certainly facilitate tyre imports. But the question remains why Goodyear and Bridgestone remain the only foreign tyre manufacturers to have established their own production base in India – despite all the talk about how important the Indian market, as part of the so-called emerging BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India and China), is considered to be.
While much has been made about the enormous potential of the emerging Chinese tyre market, the opportunities go further than this alone. For every tyre that is produced and used in the People’s Republic there is a potential money-making opportunity for the retreading and collection aspects of the tyre business.
It is not overstating the situation to say there is huge potential for retreading in China. Currently around 265 million tyres are produced in China each year, across all segments. At the same time the domestic market’s 3 million vehicles currently demand 130 million tyres annually, according to a Hong Kong Trade Development Council report.
The problems Continental faces in the US are more or less ‘homemade’. The problem is there doesn’t appear to be any solution available unless you call a total tactical retreat from the biggest market in the world a solution. In the event that this happens, it is more than likely that the company would call such a decision to cease selling tyres in the US a “strategic withdrawl.”
In 1987 the Continental group did not have the financial resources (and was later unwilling) to spend the amount of money necessary to build up the company’s Continental and General brands. Now the current management has to pay for all the shortfalls left behind by its forbears. Meanwhile, in the midst of all this the US-arm of the group’s tyre division is again going to the dogs with a loss of more than 100 million euros. Nobody believes that a turnaround will take place this year, even though CEO Manfred Wennemer and his colleague Martien de Louw have suggested time and again that it would.
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