The tyre business along with the rest of the automotive industry was hit hard by the effects of coronavirus. This tag brings you the latest news as it happens.
Good news in a year where this has been in short supply: Michelin reports that global demand for its tyres “picked up more strongly than expected” in the third quarter of 2020 after falling steeply in the second quarter. That said, demand is still below where it was this time last year.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has again urged both sides to re-engage the Brexit negotiation process with vigour in order to achieve a satisfactory deal. Bringing its latest calculations to the table, the industry association stresses that ‘no deal’ is a high stake gamble not only for the automotive sector but also for hopes of a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
Test World, the Millbrook-owned tyre and vehicle testing facility based in Northern Finland, is poised for re-opening with a full programme of outdoor winter testing as the first snowfalls signal the onset of winter. Located 300km north of the Arctic Circle, Test World’s outdoor facilities include a 20km track at its Airport Proving Ground and 80km of track at the Mellatracks Proving Ground.
There have been serious challenges to tyre distribution in 2020, and while demand has returned with the end of the national lockdown, Covid-19’s autumn rise means the spectre of spring’s market conditions looms over the winter months. This year, companies have needed to manage the operational problems posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns throughout Europe; they also needed to weigh up wildly fluctuating supply and demand. Whether there is a return to a concerted national effort similar to the UK’s actions in April and May or not, the lessons learned during this period continue to prove relevant. Meanwhile, the sector was already experiencing difficult times prior to the outbreak, with European tyre market demand flat overall in the light vehicle sector – a situation that certainly deteriorated in the pandemic. For the October magazine’s wholesale feature, Tyres & Accessories spoke to a range of players in the wholesale sector in Western Europe to look at the lessons of this year, and how recovery is progressing. We start with Micheldever Tyre Services, a leading UK player in the light vehicle tyre market especially, which has experienced a “strong” return of demand in the second half of the year, according to wholesale director Graham Mitchell.
Hankook’s global launch of Laufenn brand commercial vehicle tyres, targeting the segment’s second tier, represents a substantial development for the company’s commercial vehicle tyre business. For the UK market in which Hankook is a leader in terms of sales, the initial nine Laufenn patterns cover more than 85 per cent of tyres in the market for goods and people transportation, as well as construction truck tyres. Most sizes also offer the three peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) marking for use in winter conditions. The Laufenn range was due to be presented in the UK at the Commercial Vehicle Show, before the Birmingham NEC event was cancelled due to the pandemic. Tyres & Accessories took the opportunity of the launch to speak to Guy Heywood, Hankook’s European marketing and strategy director for its truck and bus business, and UK sales director Paul Emery about the addition of Laufenn to the manufacturer’s European commercial vehicle tyre portfolio, Hankook’s position as a leading player in the segment, and its response to the coronavirus crisis and the financial headwinds emanating from the pandemic.
Qingdao, the major city at the heart of China’s Shandong ‘rubber’ province, has announced plans to test its entire population for coronavirus after 19 new cases were linked to a local hospital. This means all 9 million people living in Qingdao are scheduled to be tested during the five days following Sunday 11 October.
The threat of coronavirus and our response to this has changed much in the last six months of year, and a study conducted on behalf of Kwik Fit shows that car buying plans are no exception. While the end of the first lockdown saw a rise in car sales due to pent up demand, it seems the pandemic has changed the vehicle purchase intentions of as many as 13.9 million UK drivers.
Despite the fact that the UK was in the middle of lockdown, Michelin Tyre Plc’s ultra-modern retread manufacturing operation resumed production at the end of April. In fact, according to the company, there were only two reasons that the Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent site paused manufacturing at all: because the coronavirus-related closures coincided with a pre-planned maintenance stoppage; and because – again due to Covid-19 – there was trouble securing deliveries of the right raw materials from the continent prior to April (see “Michelin Stoke up-and-running, looking forward to ‘steady market growth’” for Michelin UK factory manager Francois Levert’s view on how things have progressed after reopening). Therefore, Michelin UK’s retread manufacturing operation only actually endured a three-week factory shutdown. The neighbouring UK headquarters opened in mid-July and so now its truck tyre and retreading business is putting the focus on success in the new normal. This began with a communications drive that has seen the manufacturer promote the ecological benefits of retreads. Tyres & Accessories spoke with Michelin Plc managing director Chris Smith in order to find out more.
Data and analytics company GlobalData is forecasting that Covid-19 lockdowns and an increase in working from home worldwide has limited the need to own private vehicles, which will cause more consumers to consider new models of vehicle ownership. This has implications for the insurance industry. As more people turn to car-sharing schemes for their transportation needs, this will reduce the number of private motor insurance policies in force. In their place, insurers will need to provide short-term policies for drivers using these services.
The impact of the coronavirus crisis and potential effects of Brexit are making planning beyond the short term almost impossible in the remarketing sector, reports the Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA). The association says the currently booming market is arguably obscuring the potential dangers that lie ahead. Chair Sam Watkins said: “As has been widely reported, the sector is very, very busy and we are seeing highly unusual trends such as car and van values continuing to rise through the Autumn when they would normally be written down.”
This autumn could bring with it a new rash of tyre dumping and site abandonment warns Britain’s Tyre Recovery Association (TRA). The association has warned that there are several factors of which the public, our regulators and the tyre trade should be aware. The TRA’s latest comments follow a previous warning that market conditions were likely to have such consequences earlier in the year.
With yet another raft of measures to curb the spread of Covid 19 being introduced by government, the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), which represents franchised car and commercial vehicle retailers in the UK, has intervened in an attempt to clarify the situation vis-à-vis car dealerships.
The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), which represents franchised car and commercial vehicle retailers in the UK, has published the findings of the latest ‘post-lockdown automotive retail’ survey. Through the findings, NFDA aims to assess the implications of COVID-19 on the automotive retail sector and understand how the industry is now recovering.
The 39th Tire Society Conference on tyre science and technology, which runs from 28 September to 2 October, will be held entirely
virtually for the first time this year, due to the Covid pandemic. However, it will still feature 27 original works of tyre technology presented by the authors and a special topic paper on the 40+ year history of the Tire Society as well as a keynote address, plenary address, invited lecture and panel discussion.
4×4 tyre sales may have fallen due to the effects of coronavirus and lockdown, but prices in certain key sizes are actually higher than they were before those challenges presented themselves at the start of the year. Tyres & Accessories spoke to tyre market and pricing data experts Encircle Marketing in order to find out more.
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Test World
MTS
Hankook
Michelin
Autogem
Andrew Martin; Pixabay