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.
The joint venture between Cooper Tire & Rubber Company and Sailun Vietnam Co, Ltd has produced its first tyre. ACTR, facility located near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Pakistan’s leading tyre manufacturer, Service Industries Ltd. and Chaoyang Long March Tyre Co. Ltd. have reportedly signed a joint venture agreement to manufacture radial truck tyres in Pakistan.
Following the establishment of their hydrogen mobility joint venture in March 2019, Michelin and Faurecia have reported that they have formalized the establishment of “Symbio, A Faurecia Michelin Hydrogen Company”. According to the two companies “Symbio, A Faurecia Michelin Hydrogen Company” combines all their hydrogen fuel cell dedicated activities, with the aim of becoming a world leader in hydrogen mobility.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company intends to completely acquire its joint venture tyre manufacturing facility in Mexico. It currently holds a 58 per cent share in Corporación de Occidente S.A. de C.V. (COOCSA), but has entered into a definitive agreement with partner Trabajadores Democraticos de Occidente S.C. de R.L. de C.V. (TRADOC) to acquire its 42 per cent stake. On Friday, a majority of TRADOC members voted in favour of the agreement.
Buried within the more than 134 pages of Qingdao Doublestar’s latest semi-annual report is the news that the state-owned tyre maker will extend China’s ‘one belt, one road’ strategy by working with a local partner to establish a tyre production facility in Algeria. The Chinese-language document states that its subsidiary Hong Kong Doublestar signed a joint venture agreement with El Hadj Larbi Pneumatiques during the reporting period.
The natural rubber supply chain is very complex. It includes around six million farmers, 100,000 intermediaries and over 500 processing plants. To bring greater transparency to the supply chain, two ‘top-five’ tyre makers are now cooperating with a third party in a joint venture: Michelin and Continental, together with IT agricultural specialist Smag, have formed a company to further develop and deploy a technological solution for mapping sustainability practices. The client-facing portion of this technology is a smartphone app called Rubberway.
Michelin has responded to news published by Reuters yesterday regarding a joint venture with Continental and French agricultural IT services company SMAG. It confirms that the three parties will enter into a joint venture, however it will not be – as stated by Reuters – related to tyre production.
Maxion Wheels and new joint venture partner, Dongfeng Motor Parts and Components Group, have held a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of their 22,000 square metre aluminium wheel plant in Suizhou, China. The ceremony took place on 6 June and was attended by government officials and company dignitaries, customers, suppliers and associates.
Maxion Wheels, the world’s largest wheel manufacturer, has entered into an agreement to form a new passenger car aluminium wheel joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Parts and Components Group, one of China’s largest automotive parts companies. The new legal entity, Dongfeng Maxion Wheels, will build a new two-million per year capacity plant in Hubei Province, China. Series production is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2020.
Michelin/Ludovic Combe