The company, founded in 1942, disposes

Transcription

1 english section Nexen Tire Demanding targets The Korean tyre manufacturer Nexen Tire exports in more than 120 countries worldwide. A demanding strategy is meant to support the company s intentions to establish itself in the European market and to enter the top ten of tyre manufacturers at the same time. The fully automatic production in the new plant is expected to produce 20 million tyres per year in The company, founded in 1942, disposes of production facilities in Korea and China and has increasingly been focusing on the European market for some time. In 2011, sales reached 1,180 billion Korean won (about 798 million euros). By setting up a new tyre plant in the Korean Changnyeong the responsible people at Nexen intend raising production capacity impressively. Furthermore, this step is a pioneering force for Nexen s strategy to become a global tyre manufacturer. We succeeded in not only setting up a tyre plant in Changnyeong but a comprehensive and future-ori- ((Enquired about)) Xxxxx Byung-Woo Lee? comments on the company s strategic plans in an interview. Which market is for you the most important with regard to total sales and replacement business in the segments of consumer and commercial tyres? Europe is the market with the highest sales figures of nearly 6,000 million sales units for Nexen Tire worldwide in Passenger car tyres are strong in nearly all the markets. How many new products will you launch worldwide and in Europe this year? Altogether, we are launching six new models this year, five in Europe and one in America. The new products are as follows: European Premium SUV - Roadian RU1 (Sport Type European SUV) American Premium SUV - Roadian RU5 (For All Season Comport SUV) European UHP Summer - N Fera SU1 (Performance Wet & Dry Handling) European Alpine Winter - Winguard Snow G (Snow & Wet Performance Winter) European All Season - N Priz 4S (Dry & Snow Performance All Season) European Nordic Winter - Winguard Winspike SUV (Studded Directional Winter) You would like to build up the brand strength of your company. Can you tell me more about your plans in Europe? Nexen set itself two big goals to expand brand strength in the European market: tyre tests and sports marketing. Firstly, Nexen would like to aim at improving the reliability of product quality by achieving good evaluations in tyre tests carried out by journals. In fact, Nexen Tire received broad approval as it put great effort into research and development for tyres in order to meet the requirements of the German market. The results of tyre tests in various journals illustrate that Nexen s summer tyres are quite competitive in Germany and also in the rest of Europe. Nexen will continuously try to get good or even better evaluations for more models in the future. Secondly, Nexen will more actively be engaged in sports marketing. Only recently, Nexen signed a partnership with Bundesliga football team Eintracht Frankfurt for the season 2012/2013 and Nexen has been sponsoring a team for Europe s biggest drift Drift Allstars 2012 European Series since These activities are expected to increase brand awareness in the region. Please tell me more about your activities with regard to the tyre label. Nexen intensively focuses on satisfying customers demands. In order to meet the requirements which are necessary to get the evaluations envisaged for the tyre labels eco-friendly materials and rubber compounds will only be used for newly introduced products. We want to meet the needs of environmentally-friendly markets and products in Europe and other countries. Nexen will of course also try to respond to customer demands concerning an adaptation of the tuning performance of products launched before tyre labelling. Your booth at the Essen tyre trade fair received a lot of attention. What did your main activities look like? This year Nexen Tire joined REIFEN 2012 in Essen with the concept Driving with you -Driving Tomorrow, which represented the milestone, vision, technical skills and the new plant in Changnyeong, Korea in order to celebrate its 70th anniversary. There were five different zones at Nexen s trade fair booth representing the areas Winter, SUV&LTR, Eco-friendly, Summer and New Technology. A total of 39 products including 15 new models were exhibited in the different tyre categories. Above all, run-flat and self-sealing tyres were displayed in the New 122 AutoRäderReifen - Gummibereifung

2 worldwide ented industry complex for tyre production. Nexen will, however, invest a total of 1,200 million Korean won (about 810 million euros) here until the final completion in the year 2017, Hyunbong Lee, Nexen s CEO, explained during the celebrations. Passenger car and SUV tyres as well as tyres for light commercial vehicles will be produced in the new plant of the Korean tyre manufacturer Nexen Tire. The state-of-theart and fully automated plant was in all areas designed as an environmentally friendly factory. Thus, the current eco-friendly and fuel saving tyres of the Nexen N Blue series and some further new green tyres will be produced there. Moreover, Nexen will develop and produce special tyres for hybrid and electric vehicles. At the moment, Nexen disposes with the two already existing factories, one in >>> Byung-Woo Lee (Nexen Tire Executive Vice President of Sales Division) provided inside into the company s strategy. Technology zone in order to demonstrate Nexen s global standards of product quality and its technical skills. In addition to this product exhibition, the press conference and the Nexen Night were held during the fair. The press conference took place on the first day of the fair. Press representatives from all around Europe visited Nexen s booth in order to get there information on new products and technologies. During the Nexen Night one day later, international trade partners met for exchange of experience and networking. What about your plans to produce in Europe? As we have just been building a new plant in Changnyeong, Korea which involves planning investments for years in advance there, we are not planning a new factory at the moment. Nonetheless, in the future Nexen Tire will consider building a plant outside Asia. We will be thinking about different regions Europe included. Could you describe your OEM Strategy? Which car manufacturers do you work with? For the time being, Nexen supplies original equipment quality to Hyundai, Kia, Ssang Yong, Chevrolet, Beijing Hyundai and SAIC. Until now, the vast majority of Nexen s OE supplies was for car manufacturers based in Korea such as Hyundai, Kia and Ssang Yong. Nexen, however, is making good progress with more global car manufacturers. According to current future development plans, Nexen will increase original equipment tyre supplies up to 25 to 30% of global annual sales. What is the company s strategy concerning run-flat tyres and its production capacity? We expect that the demand for run-flat tyres will continuously grow. Nexen announced the new generation of run-flat tyres after 3 years of development and it will be prepared for mass production as from next year. This is meant to react to an increasing market demand and to take these opportunities to cooperate with global car makers as original equipment manufacturer. Nexen s new generation of runflat tyres with self-supporting sidewalls could improve riding comfort and heat dissipation whereas it was possible to maintain stability during flat condition and to reduce the performance gap between normal and run-flat tyre concerning riding comfort and wear. The UHP N8000 and Winter Winguard Sport tyres will be available with run-flat technology starting Q and we will expand the runflat series with other models for popular and in Europe sold premium tyres. Nexen is also planning to launch a range of self-sealing tyres with the new technology series. Could you give us your ranking for the various tyre markets? According to the publications of Tyre Business in 2010, Nexen Tire is ranked 24th in the global tyre industry. Due to our new plant in Changnyeong we hope to grow faster, to produce high-quality products and to solve the insufficient supply situation. Nexen has shown strength ranking in 6th place among global tyre manufacturers in the segment of premium products with a US UHP market share of 5% in This was published by the Modern Tire Dealer Magazine in What are your plans for the next 5 to 10 years and what market share and ranking would you like to achieve? When Nexen reaches 41 million production units, it will be one of the global top 15 tyre manufacturers and Nexen is expected to produce 60 million units in five years, in 2017, and 80 million units in We hope that the global market share will increase by 4% by 2020 and that we will be in the top 10 of global manufacturers then The interview was conducted by Olaf Tewes. AutoRäderReifen - Gummibereifung

3 english section The Nexen management inaugurated the new tyre factory in Changnyeong (from left to right): Eungyong Lee (Nexen Tire Vice President), Sungkeung Lee (Chairman of Nexen Tire Labor Union), Bungjoong Kang (Nexen Tire Chairman), Hyunbong Lee (Nexen Tire CEO) and Hochan Kang (President). Yangsan, where the headquarters of Nexen Tire Corporation are based, and one in China (Qingdao), of a production capacity of 25 million units (18 million in Korea, 7 million in China). The foundation stone for the new factory in Korea was laid in June The third production plant is a crucial element of Nexen s growth strategy. By 2017, Nexen Tire would like to be among the top ten international tyre manufacturers. This new area of about 495,000 square metres will not only consist of the pure plant for tyre production but also of an industry complex covering all the processes related to the production of tyres this means supply and storage of raw materials as well as logistics and quality control. About 2,000 employees will work there until When planning the plant in Changnyeong, the aspects of an environmentally friendly production were fully considered. It is planned to produce about 2.6 million tyres in the opening year This number will be increased to 6 million in 2013 and 8 million in As from The new Nexen Tire tyre factory in Changnyeong/Korea works in a fully automated way. 2018, Nexen will produce 60,000 tyres per day in Changnyeong. The production capacity to be achieved in the long run is to amount to 20 million tyres. This will result in an annual volume of 60 million units together with the plant in Yangsan, Korea and Nexen s factory in China. (oth) 124 AutoRäderReifen - Gummibereifung

4 Peter Becker is spreading a mood of enthusiasm Our general demand has to be for a high standard of quality Since the beginning of July, Peter Becker has been responsible for setting up and managing the new European Technical Center of Kumho Tyres in Mörfelden-Walldorf. He spoke with the editors of AutoRäder- Reifen-Gummibereifung about his new task and the technological challenges in original equipment business. A big new challenge is waiting for you after leaving Apollo Vredestein. You are now at the top level of Kumho s new European Technical Center in Europe/Mörfelden- Walldorf. What had influenced you in order to take over this new responsibility? First of all, I would like to emphasize that my former job at Apollo Tyres with worldwide technical responsibility for all the tyre brands of Apollo, Vredestein and Dunlop SA was always big fun for me. Unfortunately, this job involved a lot of travelling, especially in the past two years. From my personal point of view these extreme travelling efforts and the requirements of my job could not be coordinated. My new employer, Kumho Tyres, is an internationally well-known and in Europe already established tyre brand. The new job which includes setting up and managing the new research and development centre in Mörfelden-Walldorf near Frankfurt is certainly a very interesting and highly demanding challenge. The tyre development itself is a constantly developing process which still offers a lot of fun for me. I also think that due to my experiences of the past years I can definitely contribute very much to the cooperation of individual development centres. Our goals are clearly defined by the growth plans in Europe. What will your core tasks look like in the next months? As I have already mentioned, we will have to accelerate the setting up of our new R&D centre. This certainly involves building an organization with experienced tyre experts. Above all, intercultural experience will play a crucial role. Furthermore, we will have to analyse our current development processes and optimize wherever necessary in the best possible way. Europe and especially Germany are among the most demanding tyre markets. It will be important to succeed here and to remain absolutely competitive. The brand Kumho might need some new impulses in the European market. The two Korean competitors are putting a lot of pressure on the market. What are Kumho s ideas concerning product and marketing positions? We are permanently improving and optimizing our current products, especially with regard to the new EU tyre label. Moreover, we are developing new products which are needed for both replacement business and original equipment. The new Kumho Ecowing ES01 and our new tyre for transporter vehicles Kumho Portran KC53 presented at the REIFEN 2012 are good examples of this. In the near future, we will present a new UHP tyre as well as two new winter treads, which are two very important segments for Kumho Tyres. In addition to this, we are intensifying our Europe-wide marketing activities in the areas sports sponsoring and advertisements. Thus, we started e.g. a broad TV campaign in autumn 2011 and spring 2012 in Germany, which will also be continued next autumn. We would also like to intensify our cooperation with specialized tyre trade and are planning an expansion of our dealer programme Kumho Platinum Club. Marketing activities like the sales campaign started in spring Good deed, good drive are to be offered for our dealers on a more regular basis in the future too. We could admire the new Ecowing ES01 in dimension 195/65 R15 at the Kumho trade fair booth at the REIFEN with the labelling result A for rolling resistance and wet grip. Is this only a massive up or the necessary quality standard for Europe? First of all, a big compliment has to be paid to the developers of this tyre in our R&D Peter Becker would like to accelerate the setting up of the new R&D centre for Kumho Tyres. centre in Korea. This tyre performance can only be achieved on the basis of the best tyre technologies and enormous experience in development. This will certainly not be accepted as a single highlight but stands for our general future demand for such a performance and quality level. There is a fierce competition in the tyre sector and many customers are observing the market very carefully, particularly with regard to tyre tests. You already have had an impressive record of achievements in the original equipment area in your professional career. Were any goals fixed in this area for your new job? I am still of the opinion that activities for original equipment stand for the biggest technological challenges of a R&D team. This refers to the general product development, from tread design to used material and production processes. The quality level of production is consequently also at a higher level. Kumho is already active and well-known for original equipment, also in Germany. An expansion of our original equipment activities is one of the mentioned goals, especially concerning German manufacturers. Development orders for original equipment were always and will always be very demanding. Nonetheless, a demanding segment can be ideal for an R&D centre in order to prove itself. (kle) AutoRäderReifen - Gummibereifung

5 english section ContiLifeCycle Christian Sass, Head of Retreading Truck Tires EMEA, supports both systems in retreading. Managing truck fleets efficiently Due to an increasing cost pressure for fleets of commercial vehicles, hauliers are constantly forced to look for possible saving potentials of their vehicles. Thus, the tyre - as wear part automatically becomes extremely visible. The Hannover tyre manufacturer Continental offers fleet operators with its modular concept ContiLifeCycle a possibility to optimize the running costs of a fleet according to individual needs. There are four basic modules for the ContiLifeCycle concept: new tyres, professional regrooving, managing carcasses and retreading. A second or even third tyre life will reduce costs and will increase the efficiency of tyres for commercial vehicles considerably. Nowadays, current truck tyres are not only produced for one tyre life. When developing truck tyres, Conti always focuses on the corresponding use of tyres in order to offer commercial customers tyres, which will cause low operating costs during the whole life. Thus, the Conti carcass stands for the basis of tyre efficiency. Durability is a key factor in order to enable reuse of a tyre. Nonetheless, during the development the EU tyre label is considered as well. Starting 1st July, Conti classified all the relevant tyres for commercial vehicles for the new EU tyre label, which will be mandatory as from 1st November, and informed trade about the results. Conti had to test about 500 truck and bus tyres according to testing procedures prescribed by the EU in order to get all the necessary data and to provide information for the different sizes on energy efficiency, wet grip and noise emission. Analysis of the potential The costs of tyres could be reduced by 30 to 40 per cent with premium retreading in case of well-preserved tyres. Thus, a high-quality carcass is the key to success for a new tyre life based on regrooving treads or tyre retreading. Conti is continuously expanding its commitment in the area of hot retreading. The investment in the company s own plant for hot retreading reveals the huge importance of this branch of industry. We will further strengthen the position of our Conti- LifeCycle concept by setting-up a production for ContiRe products. Furthermore, we will optimize our experience in development and production of tyres, in quality management and manufacturing, Christian Sass, Head of Retreading Truck Tires EMEA, stresses. During the reorientation process Conti will systematically reduce the cooperation with external partners producing ContiRe in the past. The exact location of the new production plant will probably be announced at this year s IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hannover in September. Continental only chooses carcass in an excellent condition for further uses. Christian Sass explains: A tyre retreaded in a factory looks like a new tyre, runs as long as a new tyre and offers the same driving comfort as a new tyre. Continental uses original compounds for sidewalls and treads with an identical three-dimensional design for this procedure. The guaranteed quality, performance as well as life cycle and efficiency are nearly completely comparable with those of a new tyre. In addition to this, the tyre manufacturer offers with ContiTread treads which are used in cold retreading. There is not any difference with regard to rubber compound and tread design compared to its original. At the moment, we are expanding the range of Conti- Tread concerning treads and sizes, Christian Sass says. The ContiTread tread is optimized 126 AutoRäderReifen - Gummibereifung

6 for the use with Continental carcasses, it can, however, also be used with good results on carcasses of other brands. During a conversation with editors of our trade journal, Christian Sass illustrates that both concepts are supported by Conti in retreading. Cold retreading is especially recommendable for partners very tightly cooperating with Continental as a high-quality alternative. At the end of the day, it does not matter which of the two systems is used for retreading. Due to a double or triple use of high-tech carcasses, it will be possible to reduce running costs of a fleet. Moreover, Christian Sass clarifies that there is also an immense potential offered by regrooving truck tyres. Many underestimate these options deriving from regrooving. All the Conti tyres which are entitled to regrooving are marked with the word regroovable on both sidewalls in accordance with UN- ECE R54. The additional tread depth of up to 4mm which can be achieved by regrooving represents an enormously increased efficiency. According to experts, mileage of a tyre could be raised by up to 25%. The best moment for regrooving is reached, when the tread of a new tyre is worn to about 3mm. Then the tyre will be checked concerning even wear. As a precondition, regrooving can only be carried out by qualified specialists. Thus, premature failure and an impairment of the retreading potential could be avoided. Altogether, retreading and regrooving the tread structure by trained specialist can increase the total mileage of Continental s tyres by 2.5 times. The ContiLifeCycle calculation model provides a simulation of the particular advantages of fleet-specific tyre retreading. It is based on a customer-oriented tyre consulting service which illustrates in a fast and simple way saving potentials. Christian Sass says: Apart from considerable cost reductions, ContiLifeCycle saves valuable resources of the raw material natural rubber and makes a significant contribution to a positive environmental balance of transport companies. Conti360 Fleet Services Continental will establish the areas Fleet Services and Marketing Truck Tyres EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) as independent departments. Martin Burdorf (41) will work as Head of Fleet Management; Barry Guildford (36) will be the new Marketing Chief. As a consequence of this new structure, Continental intends strengthening fleet business with Conti360 Fleet Services, where the business area Truck Tyres will have an increasing importance. In the meantime, Conti360 Fleet Services has been offered in thirteen countries. Martin Burdorf explains: The extension of business areas also from a geographical point of view as well as company mergers and changed customer needs make Conti360 Fleet Services more and more interesting. Starting with the acquisition and qualified mounting of tyres, which customer traditionally buy via dealer network or based on a flat rate per kilometre. The right selection of tyres and a careful and controlled handling of the resource tyre are decisive for economic success. Due to the modular form of Conti360 Fleet Services, customers can put together their Continental fleet contract according to company size and use of vehicles. Thus, companies with fewer trucks get the chance for a contract with a uniform range of performance and a harmonized price structure for the whole of Europe. (oth) The Conti360 Fleet Services offers a modular system with interesting services. AutoRäderReifen - Gummibereifung