Giti Tire receives air permit for US plant
The final regulatory approval needed for the construction of Giti Tire’s first plant in the USA has been granted, however local news sources write that this approval has already been appealed.
The final regulatory approval needed for the construction of Giti Tire’s first plant in the USA has been granted, however local news sources write that this approval has already been appealed.
Giti Tire has strengthened its Northern European operations with Åke Älmdalen appointed as Business Development Manager – Nordics and Amaury Pouzet extending his remit to General Manager – France and Benelux. Åke Älmdalen will be responsible for increasing existing business in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden across both Passenger Car and Light Truck (PCR) […]
A customer of GT Radial Performance Centre (GTPC), Cranbrook Tyre & Exhaust Centre has been named the winner of the brand’s biggest UK consumer competition to date.
Having heard both the consensus and a third party perspective on what the high performance tyre market is and what is happening in it, when Tyres & Accessories asked Neil Hendry, general manager – Passenger Car Tires, Europe for Giti Tire for his and Giti’s view, he offered another perspective again.
Giti Tire has unveiled its stand design for The CV Show 2015. The stand, situated at 4G40, will provide a platform for the launch of the new GT Radial GDR638 next generation drive axle tyre. An interesting feature of the stand (pictured) will be the presence of the manufacturer’s logo and corporate colours. In previous years Giti has made its flagship GT Radial brand the focus of its CV Show exhibit. Now the manufacturer plans to raise its corporate profile worldwide in support of global infrastructure projects, such as the new $560m manufacturing and distribution plant in Chester County, South Carolina.
Giti Tire has introduced nine new sizes to the GT Radial Champiro FE1 range. Positioned as an all-round premium passenger car tyre for the performance C and D vehicle segments (including such bestsellers as the Volkswagen Golf, Peugeot 308 and Kia C’eed) the tyre now has more than 95 per cent coverage of its target sector. Launched in 2014, Giti expects the tyre to become one of its biggest sellers.
The CV Show has become an increasingly important event for the tyre and wheel segment in recent years, and the trend will continue with the 2015 edition. The UK segment’s biggest manufacturers – Hankook, Goodyear, Michelin, Continental, Bridgestone, Pirelli and Giti will all be present, as will the ambitious Sailun and Aeolus brands and retreader Bandvulc – and related companies such as wholesaler RH Claydon, and Pro-Align with the new Hunter commercial vehicle wheel aligner.
During the course of the last decade, the 4×4 vehicle sector has rapidly evolved out of its utilitarian roots and – thanks to the advent of the Sports Utility Vehicle or SUV – become a distinct category of often luxury road-going cars. The speed of this evolution has increased thanks to the arrival of the Crossover Utility Vehicle or CUV. In-turn these changes necessarily impact the make-up and even the definition of the 4×4 tyre market. All this has been further impacted by the European legislation putting pressure on reducing noise levels produced by out-and-out off-road tyres in particular. The result is a market that is now much more SUV than off-road or even mixed-use driven.
Giti Tire will launch its latest GT Radial next generation drive axle tyre at CV Show 2015. Making its debut at stand 4G40, the GDR638 is a high-performance drive axle tyre designed specifically for medium-sized trucks and buses. The tyre will be available in April in sizes 245/70R17.5 and 235/75R17.5, with seven further 17.5” and 19.5” sizes due before the end of the year.
On 27 January the UK economy registered growth of 2.6 per cent in 2014. Of course it has not been the same across Europe, but with record new car registrations in the UK and 32 consecutive months of growth in that figure, you could be forgiven for asking why the UK tyre market came out as flat according to both the sell-in and sell-out measurements in 2014. At the same time it is important to set all this into its wider European context, something which this month’s analysis of the passenger car tyre market attempts to embark on.
As the SUV segment continues to reach new heights of popularity in Europe, Giti Tire has introduced its first ever Primewell brand 4×4 tyre, expanding its passenger car tyre portfolio. The Valera SUV is pitched as a “quality affordable tyre” for the European replacement market, which will expand over the next year after the sustained sharp increase in ownership of the vehicle type during 2014. The tyre is manufactured in 11 sizes from 17-20”, ranging from 215/60R17 to 275/40R20 and with speed ratings V, W and Y.
At the end of 2014 Tyres & Accessories described the UK passenger car tyre market as being very slightly down in terms of volume despite the fact that many had expected growth (see “Everything pointed to UK tyre market growth in 2014”, Tyres & Accessories December 2014). Giti’s analysis puts the market nominally up – that is less than 0.1 per cent – so the end result is the same, no growth. With this in mind, in January we met with Giti Tire UK managing director Brian McDermott at the company’s Cheshire headquarters in order to understand more about the company’s recent developmen
Following his appointment as Giti international director – marketing and sales, Tyres & Accessories recently caught up with Richard Lyons at the company’s UK headquarters in Cheshire and asked what’s behind the promotion. Answering, Lyons explained by putting the announcement in the context of “continual development” at Giti. In this respect Lyons’ words fit into what the company’s top management are saying on the subject.
Giti Tire managing director – Europe, Richard Lyons has been appointed director of international marketing & sales for passenger car. Lyons will retain his role within Europe while increasing the scope of his responsibility for Giti passenger car tyres. Complementing the role fulfilled by Chris Bloor, director of international marketing & sales for commercial tyres, they are jointly responsible for all commercial and product activities outside of the Chinese and Indonesian markets across the replacement and original equipment initiatives, the manufacturer states.
The US Department of Commerce has reduced preliminary countervailing duties on tyres manufactured in China, according to local news sources. The countervailing duties are in addition a 4-per cent import tariff.
The Herald, which is distributed in Chester county area of South Carolina where Giti will soon break ground on its new tyre factory, reported that the commerce department has lowered Giti’s rate to 11.74 per cent from 17.69 per cent. At the same time the rate for most other Chinese-manufactured tyres dropped to 12.03 per cent from 15.69 per cent.
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