Prinx Chengshan relocated its European operations to Germany in 2019, and the Darmstadt-based Prinx Chengshan Tire Europe GmbH team has now been reinforced by the arrival of Sybille Schümann-Huth as senior marketing & communications manager. She reports directly to managing director Thomas Wohlgemuth.
Less than two years after Prinx Chengshan Europe came into being, the company has already sold quantities of tyres numbering in the millions across Europe. Not only that, but the Chinese-based firm has also invested in a manufacturing base in Malaysia during the same period of time. Tyres & Accessories met up with European managing director Ivan Majsky and the rest of the European sales and marketing team at Tire Cologne in order to find out more.
New website launched at Autopromotec Established during the second quarter of 2016, Prinx Chengshan Europe was born following Chengshan’s move away from Cooper Tire in 2014. First came the establishment of Prinx Chengshan itself in December 2014. Then, roughly 18 months later, the company began appointing a number of staff in Puchov, Slovakia to run […]
For Prinx Chengshan Tire Company, which is exhibiting at Reifen between 24 and 27 May, “Essen is calling”. The firm’s attendance marks its return to the well-known tyre exhibition some 10 years after the company’s last appearance. Lots has changed since then, not least the ownership of the company following the firm’s decision to buy-out joint venture partner Cooper Tire back in December 2014.
The eighth annual “Asian Essen”, Reifen China took place at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in the first week of December, with some of the Chinese tyre industry’s major players rubbing shoulders for the last time in 2014. The European side of the Sino-German partnership behind the annual show, Messe Essen stated that it expected the presence of around 120 exhibitors in hall W1 and 15,000 trade visitors. This latter figure, unconfirmed at the time of writing, takes into account the other three-quarters of the twin exhibition; RubberTech China 2014 and the International Exhibition on Rubber & Elastomer, led by the China United Rubber Corporation, comprised around 500 exhibitors across another three halls (W2-4). Messe Essen CEO, Oliver P Kuhrt stressed the importance of the ‘Reifen’ brand’s presence in China, stating in his introduction to the show that it “stands for the success of a fair made in Essen extending across borders”. With about two thirds of the exhibitors at May’s Reifen 2014 visiting Essen from outside Germany, Messe Essen also noted the importance of Reifen China in recruiting Asian participants, whose attention the exhibition organiser has drawn in Shanghai.
Chengshan Group Company Ltd. intends to acquire Cooper Tire & Rubber Company’s 65 per cent ownership in the two companies’ Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Company Ltd (CCT) joint-venture. Owing to the fact that the purchase offer is based on a pre-agreed “call option”, which itself is priced on the back of an agreed valuation of US$440 million, this means Chengshan has agreed to pay roughly US$286 million for the company. Cooper’s share price fell a dollar from around $29 to roughly $28 in response to the announcement.
A binding decision on the future ownership of the Chinese joint venture company set up by Cooper Tire & Rubber and Chengshan Group Company Ltd is still to be made, however the two parties are now in talks and have entered into an option agreement for working out the future of Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Company Ltd (CCT).
Cooper Tire executives have confirmed that reports of a fire at the company’s Cooper Chengshan (Shandong)Tire Company Ltd. (CCT) manufacturing plant in Rongcheng, China were correct. As far as the details are concerned, writing in an official statement Cooper Tire officials confirmed that the fire took place on 28 May outside of the factory site proper. According to the company, there were no injuries and “minimal damage to property”.
At the time photographs of the fire were published alongside local Chinese reports, however these provided no details of what damage the fire caused or where it actually took place. Cooper has now explained that “the fire involved a scrap tyre area outside the main manufacturing plant structure”. As a result production was temporarily suspended. It has now returned to normal.
