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.
Various news sources are reporting that South Korea’s Kumho Tire signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabia-based Blatco (Black Arrow Tire Co. as part of the Saudi-South Korean Business Forum on 18 January 2022. As many as 13 agreements were signed during the Saudi-South Korean Business Forum, of which 10 were signed by oil major Saudi Aramco.
Trelleborg Wheel Systems (TWS) has confirmed a timetable of beginning volume two-wheeler tyre production at the SYAM Trelleborg Tires LLP joint venture factory “by early 2022” following the start of trial manufacturing last December. With the plant’s entry into operation, TWS looks forward to an increased production capacity of two-wheeler tyres that not only “contributes to consolidate market presence” in southeast Asia, a region where two-wheeled vehicles are in great demand, but also “augmenting motorcycle operations across Europe and North America.”
In response to local government environmental protection measures in the Yangtze River region and with the aim of establishing “one of the most modern NBR plants in the world,” Arlanxeo and TSRC are relocating their joint venture synthetic rubber facility. The move to a new location will be accompanied by an increase in NBR capacity from 30,000 to 40,000 tons per annum, growth that will support local demands and reinforce global supply.
Despite delays during the pandemic, the joint venture plant set up in India by Yogesh Agencies & Investments Private Limited (YAIPL) and Trelleborg Wheel Systems (TWS) is now gearing up for deliveries of Mitas two-wheeler tyres. Paolo Pompei, president of TWS, recently confirmed that production will soon start.
Russian oil and gas company Tatneft and Kazakhstani state-owned oil and gas company KazMunayGas have officially commenced a joint venture to produce butadiene rubbers with the signing of a corporate agreement by Nail Maganov, general director of Tafnet, and Alik Aidarbayev, management board chairman of KazMunayGas. The agreement follows the signing of an agreement earlier this year that set out the basic terms of the project as well as a roadmap for its implementation, a framework agreement and an agreement on an action plan for cooperation.
Work on Tatneft’s joint venture tyre factory in Saran, Kazakhstan began several months ago, and the project has now taken a further step forward with the signing of a financial lease agreement aiding the purchase of modern, automated tyre production equipment for the plant.
Earlier this year, Michelin Group and Scandinavian Enviro Systems announced they were building a facility for extracting raw materials such as carbon black, oil, steel and gas from end-of-life tyres, with Michelin holding 90 per cent equity in the Antofagasta, Chile-based joint venture. Michelin has selected Italian tyre recycling solution provider Salvadori Srl to supply and install the plant’s downsizing system, and also to train local staff in its operation. The plant will use Salvadori’s technology to reduce tyres into pieces of predetermined dimensions before further processing them.
Maxam Tire Latin America (LATAM) will acquire and control the full equity interest in the LATAM Joint Venture (JV) on 31 October 2021. The 2015 JV was previously in place with Gustavo Lima and Marco Zigni and structured to expand the Maxam brand in the region via strategic partnership.
A ceremony was held on 5 April to commemorate the start of work to build the KamaTyresKZ tyre factory in Saran, Kazakhstan. The plant, a joint venture between Russia’s Tatneft Group and the Kazakhstan-based AllurGroup, is being set up at a cost of US$284 million. Construction is scheduled to be complete in 2022 and the facility will be capable of producing 3 million passenger car tyres as well as 500,000 solid steel cord tyres a year.
Automotive supplier Hella intends to sell its 50 per cent share in the South Korean joint venture Mando Hella Electronics (MHE) to Mando. The two partners have now signed a corresponding agreement and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021 calendar year. The price is “around €60 million.”
Hella and the Minth Group have announced a joint venture, which will be funded equally. The company, Hella Minth Jiaxing Automotive Parts Co. Ltd., will promote the development, production and marketing of radomes (absorbent covers for radar systems) and illuminated logos. It has a production facility in Jiaxing and will have an international scope, with an initial focus on the Chinese market. Subject to the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities, the joint venture is scheduled to start operations in Autumn 2020.
Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux has suggested about further collaboration with fellow leading tyre manufacturer and automotive supplier Continental. The French and German companies have cooperated on the Eurofit wheel business since the 1990s and entered into the Rubberway supply chain joint venture in September 2019.
After purchasing its former partner’s 42 per cent share in the Corporación de Occidente S. A. de C.V. (COOCSA) joint venture in Mexico, Cooper Tire & Rubber halted passenger and commercial vehicle production at the site and re-hired the workforce there as employees of Cooper Tires. Brad Hughes, the tyre maker’s president and chief executive officer, reports that Cooper Tires is “now in the process of ramping production back up” at the site. Restructuring the plant will cost the company around US$10 million, an expense that will mainly occur in the first quarter of 2020.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has completed the acquisition its Mexico joint venture tyre manufacturing facility, Corporación de Occidente S. A. de C.V. (COOCSA). The agreement to increase its shareholding from 58 to 100 per cent was announced on 1 November 2019.
Blatco
Aramco
Michelin/Ludovic Combe