Asia
At the end of September, the list of Asia’s most influential brands of 2023 was published at the “Asia Brand Summit” in Hong Kong. A total of 500 brands from 20 countries and regions, were honoured at the 18th World Brand Lab summit themed “The Impact of New Technologies on Brand Transformation and Consumer Behavior.” Seven of them were tyre brands and all seven were ranked amongst the top 350 of the 500 honoured brands.
Yokohama has continued its support for entrants in the 2023 Asia Cross Country Rally (AXCR), Asia’s largest cross-country rally. In addition to renewing its successful supply deal with Team Mitsubishi Ralliart, Yokohama will supply the tyre to Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia on the 13-19 August rally.
Pirelli tyres will be fitted on a record 40 cars at the next round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS at Fuji in Japan this weekend. The event also represents the opening round of the Fanatec Japan Cup event. Pirelli is sole supplier to all the GT3-based championships organised by the SRO Group around the world. These events showcase racing equivalents of roadgoing supercars, making them particularly suited to Pirelli’s core business of supplying OE and replacement market tyres to performance vehicles for the road and track. The tyre manufacturer says it uses motorsport for the development of road tyre products in its P Zero and Cinturato ranges.
The United Kingdom and European Union is importing an increasing tonnage of Off-The-Road (OTR) tyres, as the sector responds to internal and external trends. Externally, sinking shipping costs and relatively controlled production costs are particularly favouring Asian manufacturers. And with Russia’s war on Ukraine making the country a pariah in European trading terms, there are additional reasons to source increasing numbers of OTR tyres from South Asia. Trading relations with Russia’s closest supporter Belarus are also frosting, which could see further gains for Asian factories, while emerging tyre producing nations like Serbia could also reap the benefits. While the size, weight and per unit cost of the largest tyres could present arguments in favour of more localised production, lower manufacturing and materials costs weigh even more heavily in this balance of factors.
The chief executive officer of Michelin’s Europe North Region has spoken out against “cheap products from Asia and their dumping prices.” In an interview with German newspaper Bild, Anish K. Taneja, who also serves as the president of the German Rubber Manufacturers Association (wdk), emphasised that tyres such as these are not environmentally sustainable, nor are they sustainable for consumers or for local jobs.
GlobalData says that the combined sales of new vehicles in Southeast Asia’s six largest markets (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore) are estimated to have declined by 28.5 per cent to 2,468,613 units in 2020.
Goodyear will be the official tyre supplier to two top teams in the upcoming Dakar Rally. The rally returns to its roots in the desert on 5 January in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the shift to a new continent presents new challenges to tyre suppliers, drivers and vehicles. The 2020 rally will run over sand dunes, rocky canyons and wadis or dry riverbeds, all on standard truck tyres. Goodyear has a strong record on the rally in recent years, with Petronas De Rooy Iveco occupying podium places, including two first places, with Goodyear as their tyre and development partner.
With a global market share of over 34 per cent in 2018, Europe is expected to become the leading region in the automotive diagnostic scan tools market in the next few years. At the same time, the automotive diagnostic scan tools market and is estimated grow to a US$15 billion market size by 2025 – all of which adds up to a very positive diagnosis for those wishing to offer diagnostic servicing to consumers. With this in mind, Tyres Accessories analysed the latest market data in order to find the consensus of opinions relating to the future of the diagnostic tools market.
Continental reports that it is “further enhancing its support services to strengthen its partnership with ContiTread cold retread shops”. This development is being led by John Cox, Global Head of Technical Services Retread and will centre on the enhancement of support services.
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.
In May Cimcorp, the Finland-based manufacturer and integrator of turnkey robotic gantry-based order fulfilment and tire-handling solutions, shared construction plans to expand its production and office facilities at its headquarters in Ulvila, Finland. The new facilities will be built on 8,500 square metres of land, bought by Cimcorp in August 2017, nearly doubling the footprint of its current 9,500-square-metre space. The expansion will enable the company to accommodate its continuing business growth with greater capacity and efficiency, as well as incorporate new space for research and development.
Giti Tire has become the Official Tyre Partner of the F3 Asian Championship, a new five-round, 15-race series Certified by the FIA. At each event the tyre manufacturer will provide all teams with two sets of GitiCompete GTR1 tyres, part of the company’s comprehensive range of competition racing tyres which are used in events around the world.
Point S has expanded into the Philippines market. Connecting with the 7,641 islands that make up the Philippines is seen as a strategic move, following the operations expansion into India and Malaysia. According to the company, it will significantly increase Point S’s footprint in the Asian and global tyre landscape.
On 27 February 2018 TecAlliance officially opened a new office in Kuala Lumpur. 40 guests accepted the invitation to the one-day event to visit the premises and meet the employees of TecAlliance Malaysia. Attendees also obtained information about the strategy and solutions offered by TecAlliance in Asia.
At its inaugural Asia Supplier Award ceremony on 21 November, car accessory sourcing, development and supply specialist MGTS honoured Giti Tire Corporation as ‘Best Spare Parts & Tires Supplier’ and also named it recipient of its ‘Best Corporate Social Responsibility’ accolade. By taking home two of the nine awards given out at the ceremony, Giti Tire notes that it finished “above many other leading global tyre and automotive supply manufacturers.”
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