Let me first say that I don’t like discussing politics in public. I think that in general, business tries to do its best, irrespective of the interference of politicians, many of whom are only in post for a few years and cannot take a long term view. And even more of whom have little idea
Following the successful launch of our weekly intelligence report on China’s tire industry we have decided to publish a monthly summary of the latest trends. By David Shaw Outlook improving We expect to see tire production volumes rise significantly in June and July. Orders beyond that period are uncertain. Last month we noted that some
By David Shaw Tire makers still in a bad way China’s tire makers are still in a bad way. Spring has not yet arrived after the long economic Winter caused by US tariffs, the economic slowdown and other factors. Nevertheless, there are signs that the last snows have fallen and a few early flowers might
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
In the evening (US time) of 29 January, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) formally announced its decision to investigate allegations of dumping of China-made truck tires and a separate allegation of unfair subsidies. These could result in anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties respectively. Late last night in the US, the ITC posted a timetable
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.
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 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
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
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
A weekly newsletter of developments in the China tire industry including news reports and David Shaw’s expert commentary and analysis.
Monthly English & Chinese language newsletter bringing together global news stories covering retail, strategy, sustainability and legislative issues.