On 10 November, Cheng Shin Rubber Ind., Co., Ltd. announced that it is preparing to increase the capital of PT. Maxxis International Indonesia by US$30 million (about £25.53 million pounds; 29.01 million euros). Cheng Shin Rubber said that the capital increase meets the operation’s needs.
According to local media sources, both Bridgestone and Maxxis plan to ramp up their activities in India. Maxxis Group intends to invest a further US$100 million over the next five years to capture a 15 per cent stake in the two-wheeler tyre market, while Bridgestone Corporation is looking to increase its production capacity for car tyres by ten per cent next year to meet rising demand from both OEM and aftermarket customers.
On the afternoon of 16 August Cheng Shin announced that production at its Chongqing factory would be suspended between 16 and 23 August to cooperate with the local government’s power policy. It is reported that Changshou District, Chongqing City, where the Cheng Shin factory is located, has experienced continuous high temperatures recently, and the power supply gap has continued to expand. The local government advocates for industrial enterprises to stop production to ensure electricity consumption for residents and ease the pressure on the power supply.
Bridgestone’s newest ultra-high performance tyre, the Potenza Sport offered the best results in wet and dry performance in the latest Auto Express tyre test. The tyre was able to make the most of its home field advantage as the magazine used Bridgestone’s Aprilla proving ground, just besting Goodyear’s Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 by 0.5 per cent. Another notable result was the third-place finish of the Maxxis Victra Sport 5, which adds to a growing list of test successes proving that the brand is increasingly able to hold its own against the traditional premium brands. The test was conducted on the biggest selling 18” tyre size, 225/40R18 92Y. This UHP tyre test of seven products was split from the “UUHP mini test” of three of the highest-performing road tyre products, won by the new Continental SportContact 7. For the UHP test, Auto Express weighted its results to reflect UK driving needs: wet tests counted for 50 per cent of the final mark, dry 40 per cent, and the remaining 10 per cent on noise, fuel economy and price.
BKT supplier and family-run tyre wholesaler RH Claydon (RHC) has announced the official opening date of its new depot in Carlisle’s Kingmoor Park North enterprise zone. From Monday 1 August the site will be open for deliveries and collections between 8 am and 5:30 pm Monday and for collection 9 am to 12 pm Saturdays. This depot is the company’s eighth site and will allow a greater coverage of the north and border areas.
Michelin remains the world’s leading tyre company by sales turnover, but Bridgestone is close behind in one of three close battles distributed across the table. For the first time, our research ranking market-leading global tyre manufacturers in terms of sales turnover converted into euros, illustrates the impact of recent high-profile acquisitions as well as the ongoing disruption of pandemic on the wider market landscape.
At a ceremony held in Phoenix, Arizona this month, General Motors (GM) honoured 134 suppliers based in 16 countries. The vehicle manufacturer’s 2021 Supplier of the Year awardees included five tyre makers – Bridgestone Corporation, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Hankook Tire & Technology, Maxxis Tires and Michelin North America.
Hankook Tire describes its receipt of a General Motors Supplier of the Year award as an honour. The company is one of 122 suppliers around the world, including five tyre makers, acknowledged for exceptional performance in the 2020 calendar year.
Stapleton’s (Tyre Services) is conservatively optimistic for the summer months thanks to its exclusive brands, which offer particularly strong UHP tyres in the mid-range. Korean manufacturer Nexen Tire is due to begin shipping new N’Fera and N’Blue tyres to the UK imminently, while the latest tyres from Maxxis have helped the Taiwan-based brand to its best year of independent tyre test results ever in 2020.
The Maxxis Premitra HP5 has capped a run of impressive tyre test results by winning Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare’s 225/45 R17 contest. The flagship global brand of Taiwanese manufacturer Cheng Shin beat premium tyres from Goodyear (EfficientGrip Performance 2 in second), Continental (PremiumContact 6 in third, alongside Nokian’s Hakka Blue 2), Michelin (Primacy 4 in fifth), and Pirelli (Cinturato P7 C2 in sixth) in the test, conducted in Mireval, France. The test ranked tyres based on wet handling, braking and cornering grip, curved and straight aquaplaning, dry handling and braking, fuel consumption, noise, comfort and rolling resistance.
TM Boano Factory Racing, an Enduro World Championship race team for the Italian motorcycle manufacturer TM, has chosen Maxxis as its exclusive tyre supplier for the 2021 FIM Enduro World Championship (EnduroGP) and the national 2021 Italian Enduro Championship.
Motorcycle and specialist tyre distributor Bickers will launch a new Click & Collect website on 10 March. The company said it has developed the site to help its motorcycle tyre customers gain online sales. It will promote Click & Collect to consumers as a way to drive footfall to dealers’ shops. Bickers wants to develop its Click & Collect Partner network with the new site too. It says the new site will help participating partners to increase profits, promote growth opportunities, to network and upsell additional items. Backing its new site, Bickers adds that Office for National Statistics data shows retail online purchases have increased by 42 per cent in 2020 over 2019. This big jump is an effect of national and regional lockdowns to combat the pandemic, but also follows the long-term retail trend towards online purchases.
Maxxis’s MaxxEnduro motorcycle tyre has been chosen as the OE fitment for the 2022 range of Beta RR Enduro and RR Racing Enduro motorcycles. The MaxxEnduro tyre features a nimble 90/90-21 front tyre, which offers the precise steering and reliable handling any enduro rider needs. The rear tyre is a grippy 140/80-18 tyre with chunky tread blocks providing a big contact patch for sheer surfaces such as rocks and hard-pack terrain. The sharp block edges cut into looser surfaces for consistently reliable grip across an entire enduro course.
Bickers has appointed Joshua McMartin as its new purchasing manager. The son of current managing director Derek McMartin, Joshua has become the third generation of the McMartin family to achieve a management position for the aftermarket parts and accessories supplier. Bickers is the sole UK distributor of Maxxis and CST motorcycle and ATV tyres.
Maxxis shares that its new MaxxCross MX-SM sand motocross tyre – a product “designed to offer the performance expected by professionals” – is now in stock. The tyre is distributed by Bickers in the UK.
Cheng Shin
Xuda Wang
Bridgestone
ViBilägare
Bickers