On 18 January, Sailun Group announced an 833-million-yuan (£99.63 million) investment to upgrade OTR tyre production at its plant in Qingdao, China. The upgrade will allow Sailun to produce OTR tyres in sizes up to and including 49-inch. The tyre maker intends to complete this upgrade and adjust its production portfolio within a period of ten months.
Luca Mai has returned to Triangle Tyre in Europe to lead the Chinese manufacturer’s off-the-road tyre segment. OTR specialist Mai left his position as OTR director Europe at the end of August 2021 having joined the company in 2019. The OTR tyre expert previously spent two decades at Marangoni. He reassumed his tenure as part of the European Triangle team, managing the OTR segment, at the start of the year. Corrado Moglia, CEO of Triangle Europe said Mai’s “skills, experience, and knowledge of the sector, with the passion that sets him apart, will help us achieve our goals.”
The revamped BKT website is now live, and the off-highway tyre specialist wants us to know that it features some bells and more than a few whistles. Following an “in-depth restyling and redesign of the browsing experience,” BKT’s new online home at bkt-tires.com delivers a “comfortable and user-friendly environment for users” that offers “no lack of exclusive content, first-hand accounts and constantly updated information.”
On 11 January 2023, Guizhou Tyre (also known as Advance Tyre) stated that it has terminated one of its recent tyre manufacturing projects before it got to the construction stage. Guizhou Tyre said its “3 million sets of high-performance all-steel radial tyres” a year construction project was closed down effective 31 December 2022.
Praise for Continental from T&C Site Services Ltd. Not only does the UK’s largest independent earthmover and OTR tyre specialist think highly of the Continental range of radial and v-ply tyres, it appreciates the company’s “forward-thinking and advisory approach.”
On its 10 November board meeting, Aeolus approved a project with a total investment of 610 million yuan (about 73.12 million pounds, 82.93 million euros) at its manufacturing base in Jiaozuo, China. It is reported that the tyre company plans to increase the annual production capacity of 80,000 tyres through reconstruction, including giant tyres and engineering radial tyres. The construction period is expected to be 18 months.
Michelin has launched the Michelin X Stacker 3 HD for reach stackers, designed for heavy duty use primarily in ports. The new tyre, which replaces the older generation X Stacker 2 LC, limits unexpected machine downtime, reducing urgent need for replacement and extra service costs for the customer. Its optimised tread wear indicator allows for secure wear life projection, meaning operators can plan the appropriate maintenance accordingly.
Zhongce Rubber’s Westlake brand OTR tyres made an appearance at Bauma 2022 in Munich, Germany alongside its sales partner, Marangoni Retreading Systems Deutschland (MRSD). The two companies have also cooperated in Italy; the latest Westlake tyres manufactured by Zhongce Rubber will also appear in the Italian market via Marangoni. Tyrepress sister website Reifenpresse visited the companies’ exhibition.
Already well established as a leading Truck and Commercial wholesale tyre supplier, recent diversification from GB Tyres has seen it increase its presence in the car wholesale market. It is now looking forward to expanding its off-road agricultural, plant, construction and earthmover offerings, the wholesaler tells Tyres & Accessories. While the expansion of its sales into passenger car tyres has required approaching new customers and a slightly different customer base, many agricultural customers are already using GB Tyres for their truck tyre supply. GB Tyres says the extension is therefore a case of “enhancing its offer to the same customers.” It adds that the advantage of offering tyres in an expanding range of segments to an existing large customer base means it can offer a mix of car, truck and any other tyres all on the same delivery, which helps the company distinguish itself from some competitors.
Off-highway wheel and hub maker, moveero, has launched a brand-new website (moveero.com), designed to help customers quickly and easily identify the best match for their “specific application and machine requirements”. According to the company, the website has been designed to make “product selection and comparison a straightforward process”.
During Apollo Tyres’s recent celebration of 25 years of Traxion agricultural tyre technology, Europe president Benoit Rivallant set an ambitious target of growing the company’s off-highway tyre (OHT) revenue by 50 per cent. In Europe, 16 per cent of total revenue originates from the off-highway tyre sector. This compares with 63 per cent from passenger car tyres, 12 per cent from truck and bus tyres, 8 per cent from spare tyres, 1 per cent from bicycle tyres and 1 per cent from other products. In other words, the 16 per cent originating from off-highway tyre sales is a strategically important figure, 92 per cent of which comes from the agricultural sub-segment. Tyres & Accessories took time out with the company’s European head in order to find out more about how executives plan to achieve such ambitious targets in the context of a broadly challenging tyre market environment.
On 11 October, a 59/80R63 radial engineering tyre rolled off the production line at Aeolus’s Jiaozuo manufacturing base. This giant OTR tyre has a diameter of over four metres and a weight of nearly six tons. It is mainly used for giant mining weighing about 400 tons.
As of October, Kevin Burke Tyres is offering the entire Alliance tyre portfolio in Ireland. Yokohama Off-Highway Tires says that this new partnership, along with its long-standing relationship with Kirkby Tyres, will “ensure an even wider array of tailor-made solutions for the Irish market.” Kirkby Tyres remains exclusive partner for the Alliance brand in England, Wales and Scotland.
Triangle Tyre Europe
Guizhou Tyre
Techking
Aeolus
Michelin
NRZ/Arno Borchers
NTDA
moveero
Anthony/Tyre Industry Publications Ltd.
Online investor Q&A
Aeolus