This article was first published in the July edition of our monthly Tire industry Intelligence report It was accompanied by a series of other articles on sustainable natural rubber and how the tire industry can do more to limit deforestation in the Mekong basin and elsewhere. GM gets serious about de-forestation and tires In May
Some of the top issues affecting the global tire industry today include: Price changes New mobility models Tariffs Developments in China’s tire industry Sustainability Management of change Our newest Annual report “” takes a deep dive into these critical subjects. Pricing and financial performance Our looks at the volatile history over the last 12 crazy
By David Shaw This column builds on some of my previous columns about ongoing changes in our industry. This time, I want to discuss news, opinion and analysis; the relations with tire makers and how that is changing. It’s written in the context of tires, but is also relevant to other industry sectors. Changing business models
Today we are announcing the top 25 tire makers in the world. All figures in US$ Company Tire sales 2015 Percentage of corporate Corporate sales 2015 Bridgestone $26,262m 83.50% $31,452m Michelin $23,160m 100% $23,160m Goodyear $16,443m 100% $16,443m Continental Co $11,349m 26.50% $42,826m Pirelli $6893m 100% $6893m Sumitomo $6050m 86.30% $7010m Hankook $5466m 100% $5466m
Tire Tech opens in three weeks time at its new venue in Hanover. Many of you know that I was closely involved in developing the conference programme for 2016. In this column I discuss some of the highlights of the conference, and how tire professionals can benefit. First, I want to thank the team at
Bridgestone’s European Driveguard was launched today in France. It was marketed as a ‘Game Changer’ within the tire business. At first glance, the product is just another runflat tire, launched 2 years behind its US namesake. But there is a story behind the development, which marks a change of game not necessarily for the tire
Many cultures regard this period as the end of one year and the beginning of the next. I’m using that as an excuse to adopt a slightly more frivolous approach to this column. With no more pre-amble, let me look back at 2015 and make some predictions for 2016. The themes of 2015 were pretty
Last week I spent a lot of time with the VDI at their meeting in Hanover. For those who don’t know, the VDI – The German Association of Engineers – is a highly prestigious organisation which links many industries. For our industry, it was one of the few forums in 2015 where tire engineers employed
Today’s announcement that Yokohama and Nippon Zeon have successfully made isoprene monomer from micro-organisms set me thinking about bio-tech in the rubber industry. I first reported on the use of micro-organisms to make isoprene back in 2008 when Goodyear announced its cooperation with Genencor. Genencor subsequently became part of DuPont. Since then, Goodyear has gone
In the previous article, I addressed how the international tire makers’ profitability in China might be threatened by greater availability of consumer data on tires. This article looks at the situation of China’s tire makers and how that might change in the coming decade or so. Falling prices China’s tire industry is probably the most
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