Asia
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.”
Point S has opened an Asia office Singapore and appointed Ler Hwee Tiong as chief representative. The new Point S representative office is located within the French Chamber of Commerce in the city centre of Singapore and will coordinate activities within the Asian region. Point S push into Asia is expected to be “patient, and adapted to the local working environment of each market”.
Tyrexpo Asia’s organisers have welcomed China Rubber Industry Association (CRIA) as its official supporting association. Established in 1985, CRIA has over 1,200 existing members in the Chinese tyre and rubber sector. CRIA describes itself as “an industrial organization that is trans-regional, trans-department and trans-ownership.
Birmingham-based Dunlop Aircraft Tyres Ltd (DATL) has confirmed that the company is looking for new investors. And this means that “initial discussions” with “a number of interested parties” are already underway.
According to the company’s executive chairman Ian Edmondson, the goal is to find a suitable partner to help the company continue to move forward at its current rate of positive growth: “Our shareholders are now seeking to find a new investor who is in a position to help the business maintain the outstanding growth record that it has delivered in recent years.”
According to Continental, Asia remains the number one growth market for the automotive industry – and the numbers are impressive: Over 50 per cent of all vehicles produced worldwide come from Asian car manufacturers and approximately 30 per cent of all vehicles manufactured worldwide come from Japanese automakers. Ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japanese vehicle manufacturers are also amongst the automotive companies that are pushing the development of innovations in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving.
