Nexen Tire Europe is raising the prices of “all of the company’s brands in the replacement market”. The price increase is due to “the Ukraine-Russia conflict” and specifically “raw material prices such as carbon black, oil costs and freight and logistics costs”, which have all risen sharply, according to a Nexen statement issued today (13 April 2022).
It is the ‘MO’ label on the sidewall that Hankook Tire is particularly proud of. The two letters stand for ‘Mercedes Original’, and only tyres that match strict quality criteria are approved as original equipment for Mercedes-Benz vehicles. These letters appear on the sides of three Hankook tyre models that Mercedes-Benz fits on the S-Class, continuing a supply arrangement that began almost a decade ago.
The war in Ukraine has brought “high uncertainty” to Nokian Tyres’ operational environment and manufacturing capacity, and as a result it is accelerating plans to invest in new production capacity in Europe. To help fund this capacity, the Board of Directors at Nokian tyres has decided to decrease the dividend payable for the 2021 financial year.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine is now impacting Europe’s leading economies and specifically Germany. For those producing tyres, hoses, seals or health protection products, the situation is particularly series due to the duel effects of tight carbon black supplies and rising energy and specifically gas costs. “Carbon black is an indispensable material for production and so far more than a third comes from Russia,” explained Boris Engelhardt, general manager of the German Rubber Industry Association (WdK) in Frankfurt am Main, according to our sister publication reifenpresse.de.
Apollo Tyres aims to be the “easiest tyre company to do business with” and is implementing organisational changes in Europe that will help realise this goal. Parallel to a tweaking of the Vredestein brand’s positioning and pricing, Apollo is adapting its sales and marketing organisation and appointing new regional customer care managers. These changes come into play on 1 April 2022, and to find out more we spoke with Yves Pouliquen, Apollo Tyres’ head of sales and marketing for Europe.
Goodyear has named five new TruckForce Service Award winners for the fourth quarter of 2021. The TruckForce Service Awards started at the beginning of 2021 to highlight partners that provided exceptional service across the pan-European TruckForce network.
The latest European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) data suggest 2021 was “a positive year of recovery for the industry”, especially in the replacement sector. The biggest drop was in the Original Equipment (OE) consumer tyres segment (down 8 per cent) mainly due to the ongoing new vehicle chip shortage.
As 2021 draws to a close, Sailun reports that it has sold 7 million tyres in Europe “and counting”. Sailun is the 16th largest tyremaker by turnover according to our 2021 ranking of leading manufacturers. The company’s newest production base, which is located in Cambodia, started making tyres on 21 November 2021.
Nexen Tire is raising prices across its entire product range, effective 1 February 2022. According to the company, “rising raw material prices as well as freight and logistics costs” are behind the price hike. No details of the percentage increase have yet been released.
A first for Rosava – the Ukrainian tyre maker reports having shipped more than a million tyres to European markets within the space of a year. During the first ten months of 2021 it sold more than a million Remiorri and Rosava passenger vehicle tyres, 150 per cent more than during the same period of 2020. The tyre maker also added two European countries – Cyprus and Portugal – to its supply map this year.
The completion of Goodyear’s takeover of Cooper on 7 June this year brought with it the first indications of the scale of Cooper’s sales in the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market. Before that point, Cooper only reported sales figures for their “International Tire Operations”, which includes sales generated worldwide outside EMEA.
Falken Tire Europe GmbH has now announced in a letter to its business partners that it is implementing new price lists effective 1 January 2022 for both the Falken brand and for Sumitomo tyres. The price increases are considerable and extend well into the double-digit range. At the same time, the manufacturer is revising down certain price adjustments announced in September for the new year. However, both sets of price increases are limited to the German-speaking markets with Falken/Sumitomo Rubber representatives confirming to Tyres & Accessories that the price increases do not apply in the UK.
Early in 2019, Apollo Tyres announced it would introduce motorcycle tyres into Europe under the Vredestein brand name, promising performance that competed with its rival’s first line products at prices competing with their second or even third line ranges. The first three models – the Vredestein Centauro ST radial for sport touring bikes, Centauro Road sports radial, and Staccata scooter range – debuted at the EICMA show in Italy later that year.
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