On 2 April, the Trump administration announced its intention to impose tariffs on all imported products entering the USA. Although the specific timing and final rates of these tariffs have yet to be determined, it is clear that this development will have a significant impact upon China’s tyre industry.
Sentury Tire has disclosed that it will invest the approximately RMB 2.8 billion (£313 million) it raised to set up a factory in Spain in the construction of its Moroccan plant instead. The motivation behind this decision, says Sentury Tire, is that while the facility in Spain is still in the “approval process” with no clear indication of when this will conclude, the tyre plant in Morrocco is “progressing well” and has a greater need for capital expenditures.
2023 was a year of rapid growth for Sentury. The tyre manufacturer’s annual report showed that its revenue and net profit reached 7.84 billion yuan (about £860 million; €1 billion) and 1.37 billion yuan (about £150 million; €170 million), both have achieved a growth of more than 20 per cent compared with 2022.
Groundworks were visibly underway in October 2023, but construction of the new Sentury factory, the first tyre manufacturing plant in Morocco in more than 25 years, will start in the first quarter of 2024. Indeed, Tyres & Accessories has seen a video depicting Sentury chairman Qin Long on-site in Morocco observing progress with the project.
During an earnings presentation held on 8 November, China’s Sentury Tire shared its expectation of selling more than one million original equipment tyres in 2023. The company added that it is focusing on “mid- to high-end” OEMs.
Approximately three-quarters of the funds that Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd. needs to set up a factory in Spain have been secured through a share issue. On 22 August, the tyre maker informed the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that it had issued 94,307,847 shares to 20 parties at a price of RMB 26.69 (£2.93, US$3.68) per share, raising approximately RMB 2.8 billion (£307.1 million, $386.4 million).
On July 27, Sentury revealed that it expects to commence construction for its Morocco factory soon. Tyrepress China has learned that the general manager of the tyre manufacturer is “in Morocco preparing for the start of the tyre factory”.
Recently, the United States Department of Commerce’s anti-dumping review investigation on PCR tyres produced in Thailand has a preliminary result. Tyrepress China notes that the new developments are positive for Thailand’s tyre factories.
While the tyres featured in these pages represent some of the best and most popular products on the market, van fleet managers and operators have a bewildering amount of choice. The Tyre Industry Federation says that more than 300 brands sourced from more than 45 countries are on sale in the UK alone, the majority of them targeting van operators for whom a low purchase price is a key consideration. One brand that combines a relatively low purchase price with widespread penetration in the UK and beyond is Landsail. The Sentury Tire-produced brand’s latest van tyre is designed to meet UK performance targets: an all-season design for increased confidence in extreme conditions and tricky terrains, whilst offering a level of economy for drivers as there is no need to switch tyres from summer to winter.
On 27 April 2023, Qingdao Sentury Tire officially registered its planned new tyre production and sales operation, Sentury Tire Morocco. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sentury (Hong Kong) Trading Co., Ltd. With an investment of US$296.78 million, Sentury Tire intends to set up a plant in Tangiers with the capacity to manufacture 6 million car and light truck tyres annually.
While Sentury recently confirmed it is investing in a factory across the Mediterranean in Morocco, on 27 March 2023 officials once again confirmed that the Spain factory is set to begin construction this year. In addition, at the same time, executives agreed to prioritise the employment of ex-Endesa workers when the local power station closes. Indeed, the mayor of Las Pontes, Valentín González Formoso, and Qin Long, president of Sentury Tire, signed an agreement to that effect.
Sentury Tire confirms that Xu Huashan no longer holds the positions of chief financial officer and director within the company. The decision to dismiss Ms Xu was taken during a meeting of Sentury’s Board of Directors on 20 February.
On 2 January 2023, Warren Rudman left his role as general manager Sentury Tire Spain. Rudman’s departure follows Sentury’s 30 December announcement that the company is planning to invest in a new tyre factory in Morocco. Signing off his departure announcement, Rudman noted “I will start a new journey soon”.
From next year, Qingdao Sentury Tire will manufacture passenger car tyres under the Nokian brand name for the Central European market. Under a recently-signed contract manufacturing agreement between Nokian Tyres plc and Qingdao Sentury Tire Co., Ltd., production of a selected range of Nokian-designed and -tested tyres will commence in the first half of 2023, with products reaching the market in the second half of the year.
Passenger car and light truck (PCLT) tyre production trends in Western Europe have been scaling down over the long-term. The move to larger production facilities in the comparatively low-cost labour markets in Eastern Europe, or greater reliance on imports from Asia, has seen a steady stream of plant closures and conversions to speciality, short-run production capacity – on in the case of Cooper Tire’s UK plant, for example, one followed by the other – in the region. A new assessment of the most recent three-year period by tyre industry analyst Astutus Research suggests that the overall picture has been of a decline similar to the period following the 2008 financial crisis, which was itself a catalyst for this trend. Yet digging a little deeper into the figures shows several dynamics at play in European PCLT tyre production, including supply chain disruption and spiralling energy costs. For comprehensive analysis of global tyre market trends, a series of reports by Astutus Research are available to buy now in the Tyrepress Reports Shop – click here for more details.
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Sentury Tire
Atmar Lens; Pexels
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Landsail
Las Pontes Council
Sentury Tire