Sumitomo begins producing tires in PR

The Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo, already present in Brazil in the steel and mining industries, comes now in dispute with major producers of tires-first in the aftermarket, where you have participation of 10% in two years, and after that in providing the automakers.
Its factory in Fazenda Rio Grande, in the great Curitiba (PR), has official inauguration scheduled for day 3 October, after an investment of r $ 560 million carried out by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, the conglomerate's company responsible for the manufacture of tires. But since the beginning of this month the unit is producing at a rate of approximately 2 thousand tires a day, between lines for passenger cars, trucks and vans Dunlop brand.
At the moment, the focus of the company is in composing stocks and distribute these early volumes at retail, a job that involves the development, by the end of the year, a network of 50 standard shops with brand identification Dunlop on the façades.
In the future, the plans include the production of truck tyres, the importation from next year, tires for high-end bikes and the market entry of original products – namely the direct supply to manufacturers of cars, which consume more than 20 million tyres per year in Brazil.
The tests of the tyres Dunlop walking have already been initiated for four assembly plants, but the company does not reveal names. "Some are under development. Others already have the product set and know that we can provide to them from 2015 ", says Renato Baroli, sales manager in Brazil of Sumitomo Rubber. According to him, a Brazilian car was also placed to rotate with Dunlop tyres on a test track in Okayama which can reproduce various conditions of roads.
Dominated by Pirelli, which caters to almost half of the consumption of the automobile company, the original tire market is also held in Brazil by Bridgestone, Continental and Goodyear, but attracting new brands due to the expansion in the automotive production. Michelin, for example, entered the fray more aggressively for this thread after inaugurating a year ago, a new factory of car tyres in Itatiaia (RJ). The goal of the French brand is to meet the 5% of the demand of automakers.
Despite the competition from established brands in the country and the risk of overcapacity pointed to by some executives in this sector, Baroli claims that Brazilian automakers need more tire manufacturers in the next few years. According to him, there will still be the need to meet a demand for better performance tires in the factories of cars, bearing in mind the commitment made by the automakers in the new automotive system to develop more efficient vehicles until 2017.
Gradually, the pace of production at the new plant of Sumitomo in Parana will climb in the next two years until it reaches the full capacity of 15 thousand tires per day without considering possible extra days of work, this equates to about 4 million units per year, which gives impetus to the company achieve its goal of achieving 10% of the aftermarket. Today, this market turns around 30 million tires per year.
In this case, however, in addition to traditional brands, the group will have to compete for space with the aggressive competition from imported goods, especially from China and Southeast Asian countries. Data from Anip, the entity that represents domestic manufacturers of tires, show that the imported respond this year by 39% of the Brazilian consumption of tyres. Now with local production, the direction of Sumitomo Rubber promotes a smaller force of imports with the devaluation of the real.
As factory paranaense occupies less of 20% of a plot of land of 500 thousand square meters, there is space for new expansion phases at the site, which may include, from 2016, a tire production line with daily capacity of 3.5 thousand units.