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NEWS
Hankook Tire Acquires Germany’s Reifen-Mueller
BIPAVER Aims to Keep Up the Pressure
Hankook Tire has announced that it has agreed to acquire a 100 per cent equity stake in Reifen-Mueller, one of Germany's largest independent tyre wholesalers and retailers. In addition to Reifen-Mueller’s sales distribution affiliate company, Reifen-Mueller KG the acquisition will also include the retreading business Reifen-Mueller GmbH & Co. Runderneuerungswerk KG. Reifen-Mueller is one of Germany's leading tyre distributors and was
founded in 1966. It currently employs more than 700 staff and owns 44 service centres in Germany, selling a wide range of tyres, from passenger car, and light truck to heavy truck and bus tyre segments as well as motorcycle and agricultural tyres. Both the current owners, as well as the acting management of Reifen Mueller will continue to serve as group management of the company.
Following on from the positive news relating to potential tariffs on the import of low-priced Chinese tyres into European markets, we took out time during The Tire Cologne to talk to BIPAVER General Secretary Tim van der Rijken and Technical Consultant Michael Schwämmlein. Both had noticed increased positivity in the market place since the news, but the Federation of European Retreaders also warned about complacency and the need to keep up the energy in the ongoing fight to protect the interests of the retreading industry.
“Antidumping is not the only issue. Labelling is also important,” said van der Rijken. “We also need to get away from the price argument. In the meantime, the Chinese manufacturers are moving their factories in response to the ruling, so we can’t relax.”
“There are new proposals relating to labelling, covering parameters such as snow/ice grip and treadwear, but time is of the essence. We have stated that we want retreads to be included in this, but we need the appropriate method.
Meanwhile, BIPAVER says it is aiming for more info exchange between members in order to help member associations be more active and successful in local politics. Membership is also being extended to include tyre collectors. At the same time,
BIPAVER is looking to attract individual company memberships in countries where there is no national representation, and is also in discussions with additional countries such as Turkey.
“The overall message we are
tr ying to get across is that BIPAVER is the voice of the circular economy,” said van der Rijken.
During the annual BIPAVER meeting held in Cologne, a couple of changes were announced with
Tim van der Rijken and Michael Schwaemmlein
EC Confirms Anti-Dumping and Anti-Subsidy Measures
The European Commission has bow formally announced the expected provisional Anti-Dumping and Anti- Subsidy measures against Chinese TBR imports. The Document L116/8
of dated 7 May introduces the EU regulation 2018/683 of 4th May 2018.
In its ruling The EC imposes a surcharge of 52,85€ to 82,17 €/Tyre for all Chinese imports (depending on the individual brand) starting from 7 May 2018 for a period of 6 months or until a final decision is taken on the issue by the Anti- Dumping committee of the EC.
The full report on the Commission’s findings can be found in the Official Journal of the EU (in your individual language) under https://eur- lex.europa.eu/search.html?qid=152 5682000988&text=2018/683&sco pe=EURLEX&type=quick&lang=e n
BIPAVER, which has played a leading role in the complaint, was naturally delighted with the result.
“This long time expected result shows that the constant engagement of all involved parties finally payed out and on behalf of the BIPAVER board we would like to explicitly thank everybody who actively participated for their support. Let’s hope that a similar, consistent decision will also be taken in November by the EC and that the installed taxes will help to improve the sales and acceptance of retreaded tyres for the sake of our industry, the circular economy and the environment,” said the Federation in a statement.
The individual surcharges per tyre imposed by manufacturer were as follows:
Xingyuan Group 82.17€
Giti Tire 57.42€
Aeolus 64.13€
Hankook 52.85€
Other co-operating companies 62.79€
Others 82.17€
The section labelled “other Co- operating Companies” includes a large number of key Chinese manufacturers including major players such as Zhongce (Westlake), Sailun, Doublestar, Linglong, Triangle, and Double Coin.
Jukka Lankolainen replacing Patrick Sjolin as President of the Federation, whilst Tim Hercock was appointed at the new Vice- President.
Robbins Introduces Accu-Fit Sealing Ring System
Robbins LLC, a HEXPOL Company, recently announced the introduction of its new Accu-Fit Sealing Ring System.
“After numerous requests from our customers and extensive research and development, we are proud to introduce this revolutionary new rubber sealing ring
system to the market”, said Terr y Elgin, Managing Director of Robbins LLC.
These new patent- pending sealing rings bring a number of unique features to the envelope sealing ring market and aim to ease the burden on retread plants worldwide, both
in terms of ease of use and total cost of operation.
The Accu-Fit Sealing Rings come in two parts. Firstly, there is the Sealing Ring Base. Over the base, the user will fit the sealing ring Insert. By having a separate base and insert, the user will save money
4 Retreading Business