Last week, we published the November issue of our global tire industry newsletter, and distributed it to subscribers. This 36-page publication brings unique insights into: Forecasting prices of raw materials Triangle’s factory in the US – financial analysis Intelligent Tire meeting, including: Better tires mean more miles/unit TPMS improve inflation, extend life Predicting Tire-Road grip
Category: Strategic
Tire industry needs to move on
I think the tire industry is going through another major transformation. Since I started analysing this industry in the late 1980s I’ve seen only two or maybe three such large-scale transformations. To give you an idea of the scale of transformation I am talking about, think of the switch from bias-ply to radial construction in
Concept tires trigger huge interest
You have probably read about Goodyear’s two main concept tires shown at the Geneva motor show (See images above). They generated a massive amount of publicity in the automotive and general press and on websites around the world. I think this demonstrates – despite widespread opposition to the idea – that many people in the
Apollo in motion
Apollo Tyres and its Vredestein unit are developing a new brand strategy and making structural changes to their European operations. Speaking exclusively to Tire Industry Research at the Geneva Motor show, Apollo CEO, Neeraj Kanwar said the company is changing its brand strategy. The change is driven partly by a drive to build OE contracts
DriveGuard changes the game for Bridgestone
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
Future of Rubber Machinery
I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Prasanth Warrier of Rubber Machinery World last week in his Know a Rubber Leader series. The interview is in full on his website, but I thought I’d re-print two of the ten questions he asked me here, as a bit of a teaser for his full article.
Natural Rubber risks drive strategic realignments
Here in Guatemala, the fantastic Rubber days meeting has just finished. Measured by volumes, Guatemala is barely even on the map of Natural Rubber (NR) producing nations. But measured by creativity and energy it is up there among the leaders. Guatemala has the first (and I think only) FSC-accredited rubber plantation anywhere in the world.
China’s Tire industry – the fog begins to clear
China’s tire industry is in melt-down. The question now is, how long can the current situation last? I’ve just come back from Shandong Province and the mood is not good. When things are not going well, Chinese people will rarely tell you the real situation. When they tell you things are bad, you know the
Visions of the future for the global tire industry
Disruption. Change. Revolution. Usually when we talk about the tire industry, we talk about incremental change. Tires are safety critical and big changes introduce too much risk. Vehicle makers, tire retailers and the vehicle operators like tires to be reliable, safe and secure. Tire manufacture is both capital-intensive and labour-intensive. This means tire makers need
Tires, Technology and future business models
We’re putting together the programme for the Tire Technology Conference next year in Hanover. It’s exciting, pulling together 140 or so papers detailing the latest technological advances in this industry. A lot of things in this industry are incremental, so we have papers on a huge range of topics. Many of these have an element