Kumho Tire representatives have confirmed reports that the South Korean tyremaker has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi tyre business Black Arrow Tire Co (Blatco). However, the two parties differ on the degree of progress made with the talks.
As reported on 18 January, Apollo Tyres Ltd. has acquired a 27.2 per cent shareholding in a renewable energy firm, Cleantech Solar subsidiary CSE Deccan Solar. The tyre maker says the reason it did so is to gain a guaranteed annual supply of 40 million units of electricity for its manufacturing facility in Chennai. CSE Deccan Solar expects to begin delivering in July 2022, and this electricity will account for around 20 per cent of the plant’s total requirements and boost the total proportion of renewable energy to more than 30 per cent.
Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP), a joint venture between Michelin, Dundee City Council and Scottish Enterprise, has released the first images of the innovation hub that will be at the heart of the “world-class Innovation Parc…for sustainable mobility and decarbonisation” the JV is creating. Construction will begin on the Innovation Hub in early 2022 with completion expected in 2023.
Next Century Ventures (NCV), the corporate venture capital fund established by Nexen Tire and holding company Nexen Corp in March 2021, has selected Urban Air Mobility (UAM) as the first target for taking Nexen’s mobility ambitions beyond tyres. Its initial investment in ANRA Technologies is a deal that should hearten those patiently awaiting the arrival of flying cars.
Yokohama Tire has bid around $2 billion for Trelleborg Wheel Systems in a move that could further expand the Japanese company’s growing off-highway tyre business. Sources close to the bid told Tyres & Accessories that Yokohama is currently in a due diligence process that is likely to be completed during the next month or so. Yokohama previously bid for Prometeon, the ex-Pirelli industrial/off-highway tyre business at the end of 2019. Despite ongoing discussions over the following year or so, that deal wasn’t completed. Yokohama appointed the former global head of Prometeon, Gregorio Borgo, as its European president earlier this year. Trelleborg Wheel Systems executives declined to comment on the reports.
RoboTire, a Detroit-based automotive robotics and automation startup closed a US$7.5 million investment round in October. RoboTire’s patented system uses robots to change tyres “in a fraction of the time human operators can” purportedly reducing “multiple-hour experiences to under 15 minutes”. The Series A investment round was led by The Reinalt-Thomas Corporation, which sells tyres through 1000+ branches trading under the Discount Tire and America’s Tire brands in the USA. Automotive Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, 640 Oxford Ventures and several angel investors participated in the funding round.
2021 has been a year of significant strategic developments for the fast-growing Linglong Tire business. On 10 June 2021, Linglong announced plans to invest in a huge tyre manufacturing facility in Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province, China, which will output a wide range of products including 15.2 million high-performance radial tyres and 500,000 retreaded tyres. That three-phrase project will see construction commence in April 2022 and will be completed in March 2028.
A 32-million-euro investment in warehousing is taking place at Hankook Tire’s factory in Rácalmás, Hungary. Hankook has already begun building warehouses for the storage of both raw materials and finished tyres and anticipates that the facility will begin operating within a year.
In May we shared that Hankook & Company Co., Ltd., the holding company of Hankook Tire & Technology Co., Ltd., had established a fund the previous month to facilitate the securing of a new growth engine. The company reports that this business portfolio, named S.T.R.E.A.M., has made its first investment. It has invested in Mobiltech, an artificial intelligence-based spatial information and service start-up, and is now contemplating potential joint projects with Hankook Tire.
In 2017 Daryl Magowan Snr. hatched the plan for a next-generation tyre warehouse and paperless warehouse management system. By 2019 plans were well underway, with the Magowan’s Tyres team cooperating closely with Mike Allen and the software professionals at Cam. Two years later, both the building and its cutting-edge software system are up and running at the bespoke site just outside Belfast. Tyres & Accessories recently toured the site in order to find out more about the warehouse, its software and the significant efficiencies they offer not only Magowan’s but the wider tyre wholesale business.
Goodyear will collaborate with US autonomous trucking firm Gatik to develop autonomous B2B short-haul logistics mobility. Goodyear said the multi-year collaboration will contribute to safer, more sustainable goods movement while reducing costs for Gatik’s customers in the B2B short-haul market nationwide. Goodyear is developing its suite of connected tyre management systems as part of the pathway to autonomous vehicles.
Bridgestone Americas has made a ten per cent minority investment in Wrench, a US-based mobile vehicle services and technology company. According to Bridgestone, the new partnership will accelerate both companies’ ability to meet the needs of car owners with best-in-class technology in the rapidly growing mobile vehicle inspection, repair and maintenance market.
Florent Menegaux, chair of the Michelin Group and Olivier Bianchi, Mayor of Clermont-Ferrand, and chair of Clermont Auvergne Métropole, along with a number of key stakeholders inaugurated the new reception building at Michelin’s Clermont-Ferrand head office as well as “a completely redesigned Place des Carmes” on 13 September 2021.
Blatco
MISP
Trelleborg
RoboTire
Sailun
Chris Anthony, Tyre Industry Publications Ltd
Michelin