Russia
Russian vehicle manufacturer GAZ has selected Kama Tyres to supply tyres for the new range of buses built by its PAZ (Pavlovo Bus Factory) subsidiary. It will deliver Kama NF 202 steer axle and NR 201 drive axle tyres in size 285/70R19.5.
Russia’s Tatneft Group is gearing up to offer ATV tyres under its Kama tyre brand. The company announced this week that its Nizhnekamskshina factory has commenced production of an experimental size 25×8-12 tyre, the Kama Quadro ATM, and intends to begin volume manufacture before the end of this year.
Tech Europe introduced Dinara Izmaylova as the newest member of its team on 5 October. Based in company’s Rovereto, Italy office, Izmaylova joins as a new sales area manager covering Russia, Scandinavia, Finland and the Middle East, as well as the Baltic and CIS regions.
Taif Group, the world’s largest producer of isoprene and the Russian Federation’s largest rubber producer, has entered into an agreement with Russian integrated petrochemical company Sibur that finalises the creation of a combined entity that will leverage the facilities of Sibur Holding and create the largest petrochemical company in Russia and one of the biggest in the world.
Kama Tyres has commissioned new passenger car and light truck tyre manufacturing equipment at its Nizhnekamskshina plant in Tatarstan. The Tatneft tyre manufacturing business says the two VMI MAXX tyre builders and the Apexer, a unit that automatically assembles freshly extruded apex with a pre-manufactured bead, are now in operation.
In addition to working towards expanding capacity for all-steel truck tyres at its Nizhnekamsk Truck Tyre Factory (NZGSh) by a further 1.2 million units a year, Russia’s Tatneft Group is giving the plant the capability to produce up to 33,000 large-sized industrial and agricultural tyres annually. This project is being financed with a 10 billion ruble (£99 million) loan.
Goodyear has established an exclusive partnership with Globaltruck, one of the largest road freight carriers in Russia and the leading “full truck load” (FTL) carrier in the Urals and Siberia markets. The fleet includes 1,305 long-haul trucks plus 1,457 trailers and all vehicles will be equipped with the latest Goodyear Fuelmax Gen-2 steering, drive and trailer tyres.
China accounted for more than half of all passenger car and light truck (PCLT) tyres entering the European Union and the United Kingdom for the first time during the first eight months of 2020. Comparatively, the then 28 EU nations imported 105 million passenger car and light truck (PCLT) tyres from outside the region in the same period of 2019.* The major impact on tyre demand of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as varying degrees of disrupted production, led to the EU-27 and UK together importing 21 million fewer tyres in the corresponding period of 2020, a reduction of 20 per cent. The Eurostat and HMRC data was compiled by leading data analyst Astutus Research.
Marubeni range of international tyre-related investment interests also includes projects in Russia. One example is the establishment of Marubeni Rubber RUS LLC (MRR) in February 2019. In this case the Marubeni Corporation chose to connect with Russia’s very active mining industry due based on the country’s rich natural resources.
The Russian SME Bank has lent 48.7 million rubles (£497,000; 541,582 euros; US$633,100) to Intech Eco LLC, a tyre pyrolysis plant based in the Novokuznetsk industrial park, at the start of September 2020. According to local news reports the loan is for the purpose of building a large tyre disposal facility. Financing will be provided for five years under a program of Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development (according to the Russian Government’s Decree No. 1764 dated 30 December 2018). The loan is said to be secured by a guarantee from Russian Small and Medium Business Corporation (RSMB Corporation), covering up to 50 per cent of the loan amount.
Kama Tyres Tatneft’s Nizhnekamsk Truck Tyre Factory has signed an agreement with Siemens to expand the logistics system previously installed within the plant. This work is being carried out as part of the second phase of an expansion capacity project within the facility.
Nokian Tyres has reported second quarter 2020 net sales of 270.7 million euros. In the comparative period 2019, this figure was 415.7 million euros. Therefore, the Finnish company’s second quarter net sales were 30 per cent lower than this time last year.
Bridgestone EMIA has resumed production at its European manufacturing plants in Bari (Italy) and Lanklaar (Belgium). The Béthune (France) plant will reopen tomorrow, 21 April 2020. This follows the 14 April news that production in all Bridgestone plants located in Spain (Burgos, Bilbao and Puente San Miguel) and Russia (Ulyanovsk) had recommenced. Today’s announcement means that Bridgestone EMIA’s full manufacturing network has restarted production with the exception of its Indian and South African plants, which remain closed for now.
Production at the Nokian Tyres’ Russian factory in Vsevolozhsk re-launched on Monday 6 April 2020. According to the company, the restrictions adopted by the the Russian presidential decree dated 2 April 2020 extending the “non-working regime’ until the end of April, do not apply to Nokian’s Vsevolozhsk factory. This is said to be because “as it is a continuously operating enterprise…it is thus allowed to continue normal operations”.
The Tires & Rubber 2020 exhibition in Moscow has been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organiser Expocentre reports that the decision not to go ahead with the show between 24 and 27 April was taken after restrictions were announced by federal and city authorities.
Tech Europe
Tatneft
Globaltruck
Linglong
Nokian Tyres