GT Radial Gets Serious About Chinese Tires for America
GT Radial has two problems in the U.S. market. The first is that you’ve probably never heard of the company. The second is that, since it’s a Chinese tire maker, you probably aren’t interested in hearing about it. But GT Radial provides original-equipment fitments on over 100 models in its home market, including General Motors, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz products. GM even named it supplier of the year in 2005 and 2006.
Going back to that second problem, GT Radial’s newest tire, the Champiro HPY is meant to change most shoppers’ perspectives on Chinese tires. At a launch event in Phoenix, vice president of sales Tom McNamera told the crowd, “I’m not interested in competing with Linglong, we want to show that we can hold our own with the top-tier tire companies.” So to that effect the Champiro HPY is GT Radial’s first Y-rated tire.
GT Radial’s presentation on the Champiro HPY showed a performance test comparing its new tire to other unnamed performance tires, and the results look good. We also had a chance to take a few laps around a road course and do a short slalom exercise in Champiro HPY–equipped cars. Based on our brief experience, it looks like GT Radial’s claims should hold up. The laps weren’t driven at the limit, but the HPY seems like it has a good amount of grip and returns good feedback to the driver.
The one thing that GT Radial does have in common with other Chinese tires is a low price of entry. Prices vary from dealer to dealer, but the HPY should cost anywhere from $105 to $150 in sizes ranging from 17 to 20 inches. That’s about half the price of high-end rubber from the likes of Michelin, Continental, Goodyear, and Bridgestone. We’ll be sure to investigate how the HPY compares to the competition in a future
tire test.
Old News
Indonesia's Indomart retail shop entered South Africa
Jakarta: Indomaret officially open a branch in Johannesburg, South Africa at the end of last month. Indonesia's Ambassador in Pretoria, Sjahril Sabaruddin, attended the launching ceremony of Indonesia's first market franchise in Africa. "The community and local businessmen, foreigners, Namibia and Zimbabwe businessmen, as well as Indonesians living in South Africa are very excited about the store's opening," Director General of National Export Development, Ministry of Trade, Gusmardi Bustami, said on Friday, February 8.
The opening of this store is a joint effort initiated by the Trade Ministry, the Indonesian Embassy in Pretoria, ITPC Johannesburg and national businesses. The initiative was launched during the Trade Mission led by Deputy Trade Minister in early 2012, following up to the working visit of the trade Minister of Trade in 2011-end.
The cooperation is further developed through Indonesia's participation in the Africa Big Seven Exhibition, held in mid 2012, which was participated by 24 food and beverage companies including PT Mayora, PT Orang tua Group, PT Marimas, PT Indofood, and PT Garuda Food.
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Telkom builds 3rd data
center in Singapore
Khoirul Amin, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Business | Sat, June 06 2015, 11:24 AM
Business News
State-run telecommunications firm PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) has officially kicked off the development of a new data center in Singapore to support its ambitious goal of becoming a world-class information and technology company.
The firm’s business arm in the city-state, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International Pte. Ltd Singapore (Telin Singapore), held a groundbreaking ceremony attended by a number of high-ranking officials for the construction of the data center in the Jurong area on Friday.
Among those in attendance were Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno, Singaporean Senior Minister of State Lee Yi Shyan and Indonesia’s Ambassador to Singapore, Andri Hadi.
Telkom president director Alex J. Sinaga said that the new data center — dubbed Telin-3 — would become Telin Singapore’s third data center after those in Changi and Tai Seng.
“The new data center, which is set to start operating in the third quarter of next year, is expected to strengthen Telin Singapore’s position as Telkom’s strategic hub connecting Indonesia and other parts of the world,” he said in a statement.
Singapore was ranked first of 143 countries in this year’s global network readiness index, surpassing last year’s champion Finland, according to a report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Network readiness is defined as a nation’s level of preparedness to participate in and benefit from information, communications and technology (ICT) developments.
Singapore is now a battleground for the world’s leading data center operators, such as Equinix, SingTel and StarHub.
Telin Singapore CEO Septika Noegraheni Widyasrini added that the construction of the new data center marked a pivotal step for the company, with its business value set to soar.
Telin-3 was designed to fulfill demand for premium data centers, not only in Singapore, but also in the regional and global markets, Alex said.
“Telin-3 is one of our investments overseas that is in line with our growth strategy to strengthen our service in connecting business partners and customers in a digital supply chain,” he went on.
He added that the new five-storey data center was set to be constructed on an 8,000 square-meter plot of land with a 20,000 sq m gross floor area.
Telkom has previously stated that total investment for Telin-3 will hit US$115 million.
Alex said that he was confident that market potential for the new data center remained big both in Singapore and other countries.
The data center market in Southeast Asia is forecast to grow by 18.05 percent in compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the period of 2014 to 2019, driven by surging demand for cloud computing and big data analytics, according to research by research firm TechNavio.
Other than in Singapore, Telkom currently has three data centers in Indonesia run by its subsidiary TelkomSigma.
The data centers are located in Serpong in Tangerang, Surabaya in East Java and Sentul in West Java, according to information published on the company’s website.
- See more at:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/...ta-center-singapore.html#sthash.b6nNK67w.dpuf
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Indonesia's Salim building noodle plants in Serbia, Kenya
SADACHIKA WATANABE, Nikkei staff writer
Offering a variety of flavors, Indomie instant noodles are popular in such markets as Indonesia and Malaysia.
JAKARTA -- As competition in instant noodles heats up at home, Indonesian conglomerate Salim Group is looking to tap new growth markets in the Balkan Peninsula and East Africa.
A Salim-affiliated food company will build a noodle plant in Indjija, located northwest of the Serbian capital of Belgrade, at a cost of 11 million euros ($15 million). Construction will begin this year, with the plant set to come onstream in 2015. Products made there will include the Indomie brand of instant noodles sold by core group firm Indofood Sukses Makmur. Production capacity has not been disclosed.
In Serbia as well as neighboring Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania, Salim sells products imported from Indonesia and elsewhere through a joint venture with a Saudi-affiliated company. The new plant will serve these markets.
Salim also teamed up with the Saudi firm to foray into Kenya, constructing an instant-noodle factory in the port city of Mombasa. According to an Indonesian newspaper, investment in the plant, which offers annual output capacity of up to 115 million units, reached $7.3 million.
In West Africa, Salim operates a Nigerian instant-noodle factory owned by Indofood and a local company, boasting a majority share of the Nigerian market. It also supplies neighboring nations. By setting up the new site in Kenya, Salim plans to expand its reach to both sides of the continent.
Indofood's annual output capacity of instant noodles tops 16 billion units. In recent years, it has sought to diversify earnings by bolstering its lineup of higher-margin goods such as dairy products and health foods. As part of overseas expansion, the company has acquired a Chinese food processing company and a Brazilian sugar processor.
Sales at Indofood rose 11% on the year to 41 trillion rupiah ($3.4 billion) in the January-September period of 2013, but net profit plummeted 25% owing to foreign exchange losses and other factors.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Indonesia-s-Salim-building-noodle-plants-in-Serbia-Kenya