It is stated that the new generation premium Prometeon tires branded PIRELLI will take their place on the roads in countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in April. At the first stage, four product groups used in long distance, highway, regional, urban and construction sites are offered to the market.
Noting that the 02 Series represents the best practice in industrial and commercial tire production with Prometeon's latest technology, Roberto Righi, General Manager of Prometeon Tire Group, said that; “With the contribution of the successful results recorded in the last 18 months, as Prometeon Tire Group, new investments and developments will be on our agenda more in 2022 than in 2021. The launch of the new 02 Series represents an important moment for Prometeon. We offer our customers products that we have developed with a focus on performance, safety and quality. For Prometeon, this series means a generational change in our products. Thanks to our technology, we have focused on sustainability with our production process aimed at recycling, starting with the use of raw materials. The importance we attach to the environment makes our products more sustainable both in the production process and in use. The fact that our products contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions through fuel savings is very important considering the problems of the current market.”
“Prometeon R&D Team Focused on Innovation and Sustainability in the New Series”
It is stated that innovation and sustainability are key targets for Prometeon's R&D team while developing its new product range. In the name of sustainable innovation, it is stated that the new series developed at Prometeon R&D centers with the contribution of technological solutions represents the highest level in terms of cost-effectiveness and respect for the environment for professionals in the transportation sector.
It is stated that all R&D studies carried out in this process focus on high mileage on the one hand, and on the other hand, "active sustainability" and managing operational costs more effectively. Active sustainability means longer tire life, lower rolling resistance and lower fuel consumption.
It is stated that there is an intense and sensitive focus on materials and production processes to achieve a very balanced product that can offer the best performance with the same safety standards, while paying attention to the principles of sustainability. It is noted that the 02 Series has increased its performance compared to the previous series, while the rolling resistance has improved by an average of 18 percent in the entire series, while the mileage performance has increased by an average of 10 percent. It is indicated that an average of 20 percent improvement in durability and an average of 10 percent increase in regular wear is achieved.
Alexandre Bregantim, CTO of Prometeon Tire Group, said that; “While focusing on the formulations and use of renewable materials in design and production, formulations containing sustainable materials, we also focused on technological solutions and innovative processes that allow us to optimize the weight of tires without sacrificing performance. In addition, all of our products can be recoated and are suitable for treading to extend the service life of the tyres.”
The program, where Prometeon's new series tires developed in Turkey and with the contributions of Turkish engineering were introduced, was held in Venice, Italy, in May. While the Turkish wind was blowing at the launch, which was attended by Nuray Pekcan, Editor-in-Chief of My Truck Magazine, the brand's sponsorship of the Superbike World Championship and the agreement of the champion Toprak Razgatlıoğlu attracted great attention.
After the launch, Prometeon Turkey AFME (Africa, Middle East), Russia, CIS (Central Asia and Caucasus) Region CEO Gökçe Şenocak and Prometeon Turkey, MEA, Russia, CIS Marketing Director Faruk Uslu, in an interview with the 02 Series' state-of-the-art technology. We touched on many topics from innovations to the Turkish and European markets, from after-sales services to the advantages provided in logistics costs.
100 PERCENT TURKISH PRODUCTION: 02 SERIES
Gökçe Şenocak, who started her speech by talking about the fact that they have four factories in the world, two in Brazil, one in Turkey and one in Egypt, and that the factory in Turkey is the most advanced in terms of technology, emphasizes that the new generation 02 Series is 100 percent Turkish production.
“RFID Technology is Used for the First Time in the 02 Series”
Şenocak continues to talk about the features of the 02 Series by saying that; “One of the most important features of the 02 Series, which will be produced in our Turkey factory, which is a premium tire manufacturer, is that it is produced with RFID Technology. RFID Technology stands for Radio Frequency Identification Technology. In this technology, we can read all the information about the tire from the device we use by using the chip inside the tire and the radio frequency. With the RFID chip containing various codes, you can access various information such as tire serial number, size, pattern, stock, and then process all kinds of information. It is a technology that we use for the first time with RFID Series 02. We are still developing our technology. Our aim here is to enable our tire to enter the dealership, transfer it from the dealer to the fleet, and then track it in many stages, starting from the time it leaves our warehouse.”
“Following Continues Even After Coating”
Mentioning that thanks to this system, their customers use their tire management systems more effectively and they can access all information instantly, and Şenocak said that; “We also direct the technology and the industry with the data obtained. With this developed system, the same tracking can be done even if the tire is covered, which offers a great advantage for our customers. Again, only our teams perform RFID tests and applications. We plan to have all our tire production switched from Series 01 to Series 02 by 2025.”
“The Future Begins Now with Prometeon”
Faruk Uslu said that; “We emphasize that we actually offer the opportunity to use the technologies of the future today, with the words that “The Future Begins Now”. The technologies of the future are going to autonomous, electric and similar vehicles. The chip tires we offer, on the other hand, allow our customers to use the technologies of the future.” Emphasizing that the new tires provide great advantages in terms of total life costs, Faruk Uslu said that; “In this period when costs are challenging for everyone, everyone wants to use tires more efficiently. With our services gathered under the umbrella of Pro Services, we promise our customers the opportunity to increase productivity and save even after sales. We are not just a tire manufacturer. When it comes to premium tires, we need to use them to the fullest so that the cost can be utilized. Another of the most important advantages that we contribute to the reduction in operational costs along with the total cost of ownership. The 02 Series provides fuel savings to its users with an 18 percent decrease in rolling resistance. Considering that the theoretical 10 percent rolling resistance has a 3 percent effect on fuel economy, this is a serious effect. At the same time, we increase the mileage performance by 10.4 percent. While we encourage savings here, we also encourage recycling with 20 percent increased durability. With the Prometec brand coating we offer in our Pro Retread service, which is one of our Pro Services services, we are extending the service life of the tire.”
“500 Kilograms More Load Per Tire”
Mentioning that R02 PRO TRAILER PLUS 385/65 tires offer a load carrying capacity of 10 tons, while many tires in the industry can carry 9 tons of load per axle, Şenocak said that; “In other words, we gain an advantage again with 500 kilograms more load carrying capacity per tire. In addition, with our U02 URBAN-e PRO MULTIAXLE tires introduced in Series 02, we support not only electric vehicles but also technology. We offer great advantages to consumers and fleets. We focus on 3R to support sustainability. These are: Reduced, Recycle, Rethink. So; reduce it, recycle it, and rethink it.”
“In 2021, We Increased Our Capacity to 1.5 Million”
“One In Every Four Tires Is Our Brand!”
Indicating that; "In our company, which was officially established in 2017 with an investment, we first announced an investment of 120 million dollars for both our capacity and our technology. Thanks to this investment, we increased our capacity to 1.5 million in 2021. The capacity we are talking about is the highest capacity in our geography." Şenocak said that; "While we predicted the rise of the tire market because of our investments, we were not mistaken in this regard, and we all witnessed the Turkish heavy vehicle tire market breaking a historical record by reaching 2 million levels in 2020. Currently, our market share in Turkey is over 25 percent, that is "One of the four tires is our brand. We are the market leader in a single brand in Turkey, and we continue to win the market. There are many reasons behind this, the most important of which are our factory, our capacity, our technology and of course the product we offer."
“We are the Market Leader at Ford Trucks”
Şenocak and Uslu mention that they have over 150 dealers in Turkey and that they are located in every important town in Turkey, and that they choose their dealership from town to town and that Prometeon tries to be strong wherever truckers and transporters are strong. While mentioning that they work with almost every commercial vehicle manufacturer in Turkey, they mention that they are the market leader in Ford Trucks and that they have a market share of more than 50 percent in Ford. Giving the good news that Prometeon tires will also be installed on Turkish-made electric buses/Karsan Atak Electric Buses in the coming period, Şenocak also touches upon the R&D issue that the brand attaches particular importance to; by saying that: “Prometeon Group has received the most investment in Turkey in five years. $15 million of the $20 million total R&D investment was made in our R&D center in our Turkey factory. Our R&D center that we opened continues to grow day by day. Currently, 100 of the 150 R&D employees working under the umbrella of Prometeon are in Turkey. We allocate 3% of our turnover to our work in our R&D Center, which was established in 2007 and renovated in 2021.”
Talking about their work, Faruk Uslu said that; “We produce different tires suitable for different conditions in our R&D center, and we also carry out important studies on sustainability. We work with TUBITAK on 30 different projects, including our 10 patented works. The reason why we call our Center new, which was established in 2007 and approved by the ministry in 2015, is because we accept our facility, which we equipped with indoor, outdoor, chemical facilities, laboratories and new equipment, as a new technology center.”
“Our Target Is Total Brand Leadership”
More Than 50 Percent of The Tires Produced Are Exported
Şenocak said that; “Currently, the supply-demand balance, including the European market, is progressing in an interesting way. Markets are growing and demand is still too high relative to supply. In this direction, we continue to increase our capacity. We have a target to increase our 1.5 million capacity to 1 million 850 thousand. At the moment, we want to increase our single brand leadership to total brand leadership with our capacity.” Şenocak also touches on the exports of Prometeon Turkey and the European market by saying that; “There are two markets for the premium tires we produce: one is Europe and the other is Turkey. We currently export more than 50 percent of the tire we produce. We also provide a benefit to the economy in this respect. The highest export of our factory is to Europe. Our market is high in Italy and Spain, and we are increasing it even more in Germany. While we were strong in Turkey, Egypt and Brazil before, we are now on the same path in Europe. At the moment, we have reached double-digit shares in the European market.”
“Turkey Heavy Vehicle Tire Market Is The Biggest In Europe”
Mentioning that they want to invest more in the future, Şenocak and Uslu also said that; “Turkey is very strong, our heavy-duty tire market is the largest in Europe. We are 20 percent larger than even Germany, whose numbers are closest to us. While the weight of Turkey's road transport on the total transport is around 85 percent, it remains in the 70s in Europe. At the same time, our country has a very important strategic position. While the importance of road transport increases day by day, our transporters continue to get stronger. Our strong fleet continues to grow. The recent problems in the world also make our country stand out at some points. All this paves the way for us to think positively about our investments”.
“We Do Not Just Diagnose, We Apply The Treatment”
Şenocak continued his speech by saying that; “We have different agreements for every need. One of them is one of Turkey's largest fleet agreements with Netlog Logistics. Our success in cost reduction in this deal, which is very difficult to manage operationally, contributes to us in terms of customer satisfaction”. Şenocak also mentioned that their work continues with the fleet agreements and that they are strong after sales as well, by saying that; “We offer our services branded as Pro Services in our dealers within the scope of after-sales service. While we provide every service from roadside assistance to tire retreading, we provide 24/7 tire roadside assistance service with Pro Time and tire retreading service with Pro Retread. Our Pro Check digital tire software enables us to measure the tires of our fleet customers, and to offer solutions and suggestions for improvement in tires and reducing their costs, while also monitoring the performance of the tires. However, we do not only diagnose, we also apply the treatment by immediately eliminating the deficiencies and problems we detected during the measurements.”
“We Are Behind Our Tires All The Way”
Indicating that; “We trust our products and our ProRetread coating technology. We support this claim by giving a coating guarantee to our customers”, Faruk Uslu said that; “We want to show how confident we are in our tyres, with a 100% replacement guarantee starting in Italy in the 02 Series.”
“We Started Getting Reference Letters From Customer Satisfaction”
Mentioning that they continue to provide significant savings to their customers by touching approximately 500 thousand tires in more than 1200 fleets in the last four years with their Pro Services services, Faruk Uslu said that; After customer satisfaction, we started to receive reference letters from our customers. We also benefit from our signed reference letters from our customers, which include many companies engaged in bus, construction, international transportation and intercity transportation, in sales services.”
“We Allowed Time for Everyone to Make Their Own Business Plan”
“We Balance Our Prices With Total Cost of Ownership”
Şenocak said that, “Normally, while the prices of natural rubber, brent oil etc. increase, this year we witnessed increases in all items. In other words, not only commodity but also energy and logistics costs have increased. While a container coming to our country from Asia was around 2000 dollars, these figures reached 20,000 dollars with the price increase. At the moment, even the lowered prices are around 14-15 thousand dollars. So when you look at it, there are very serious cost increases. When the exchange rate effect was added to all these, a difficult process was entered. We conducted this period dynamically. As soon as the pandemic started, we never left the field. We have always stood by our customers, end users and dealers. We relieved our customers with gradual transitions. Not only did we not directly reflect the price increases, we also shared our predictions with our customers and informed them about the process. Thus, we allowed time for everyone to make their own business plan.” Şenocak continued as follows: “While energy and raw material costs have increased 3-4 times, we can say that prices have doubled as a sector compared to the previous year. We did not reflect exactly what our costs were reflected to us, we only reflected some of them on the prices. The materials, raw materials and technology we use in the 02 Series, the tire group that we call the best in its class, bring some increases. Since the 02 Series includes higher technology and development compared to the 01 Series, its market position will be higher, and it will continue to give the best result in total cost of ownership with the benefit it will offer to our customers.”
Şenocak and Uslu, who mentioned that although there are some difficulties experienced globally, their production is not affected in any way thanks to their stocks, planning, logistics and good management of the process, said: "We do not see a bottleneck in the future, either."
“We Work in Compliance with Sustainability Principles”
Continuing his words by saying, “We, as Prometeon, want to produce the best tire”, Şenocak said that; “We are talking about the 150-year-old Pirelli brand and a well-established industry. We also attach great importance to sustainability. Prometeon Group signed the United Nations Global Compact in August 2019. We work in accordance with the principles of sustainability in our production, process and all work areas. In 2021, we reduced water consumption at our plants by 7.5 percent globally and by 18 percent in Turkey. We have achieved a 4.8 percent decrease in emissions, both globally and locally, compared to the previous years, on the way to becoming carbon zero. We reduced our energy consumption by 4.8 percent. As a company, we continue to work within the framework of the Paris Climate Agreement to support sustainability. Within the scope of the End of Life Tire (ELT) regulation, tires are collected, some are burned and some are granulated and used in different markets. We aim to increase the recycling rate of our waste to 94 percent.”
“The First Turkish World Champion Will Carry the Prometeon Logo on His Helmet!”
In the program where Prometeon announced that it is also the sponsor of Superbike world champion Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, Şenocak said that; “It is very important for us to sponsor Superbike and make an agreement with Toprak Razgatlıoğlu. When it comes to energy, dynamism and passion, the first thing that comes to mind is the Superbike World Championship. When it comes to Superbike, we signed a sponsorship agreement with Toprak, the first Turkish world champion in the history of the competition. We also support two young talents from Toprak Razgatlıoğlu's team. Toprak is our brand ambassador right now,”
Who is Toprak Razgatlıoglu?
The Turkish driver, born in 1996, won the championship in 2021 after fighting in the last round with Jonathan Rea, who is a 6-time world champion and also a legend in his category. Razgatlıoğlu, one of the world's best young talents in motorcycles, will wear the Prometeon logo on his helmet throughout the championship.
“The first four product lines of the 02 Series to be released and their new designations are:
• R02 PRO TRAILER PLUS: 385/65 R 22.5
• G02 PRO MULTIAXLE PLUS: 385/65 R 22.5
• U02 URBAN-e PRO MULTIAXLE: 275/70 R 22.5 and 315/60 R 22.5,
• R02 PROFUEL: 225/75 R 17.5 and 285/70 R 19.5
In the new series, the first letter in the product group name denotes the segment. The letter H is used for highway, R for regional, U for city bus and G for mixed use on/off road with construction sites. This is followed by the number 02, which represents the new series. The type of use is specified as follows: Profuel for low rolling resistance, PRO Trailer for trailers and semi-trailers, and Urban-e for city electric and hybrid buses. The last axle to be used is Steer for steering, Drive for traction axle and Multiaxle for multi-axle use.
Prometeon Engineering
The Prometeon brand is featured in all 02 Series tires with the expression "Prometeon Engineered", which symbolizes/shows/reveals the technological innovations achieved with the design and production of Prometeon Tire Group and means Prometeon Engineering. The 02 series tires with triple peaked snowflake (3PMSF) marking are equipped with an RFID sensor and are approved by major vehicle manufacturers in Europe.
The innovations in the focus of the 02 Series are:
• PROGEA (Pro Grip Environment Approach): This technology has brought a new approach to materials, especially pulp structure. Prometeon has preferred to use sustainable materials in order to protect the health of the factory personnel and reduce the environmental impact, without compromising the performance of the product in terms of safety (wet grip) and efficiency (rotation resistance).
• SHTB (Super Highly Flexible Belt): The belts are made of high-strength steel, which provides high flexibility for carcass strength and longevity and prevents corrosion propagation.
• SWITe (Helix Steel Wire): Zero degree helical steel wire has a new design and an increased diameter that increases strength and resistance.
• COBe (Integrated Heel): The reinforced rubber heel provides extra flexibility, resistance and high load capacity with its new design.
• LEDB (Innovative Low Energy Dissipation Belt): Innovative belt is designed to optimize tire weight, limit energy loss, reduce rolling resistance and fuel consumption.
• SSRP (Innovative Shoulder Blocks) Thanks to the new shoulder design, it creates the correct surface pressure and thus ensures regular wear and higher mileage.
• HR4B (High Strength 4 Generations): Regular wear, coating ability and road holding are ensured thanks to the new high strength 4 belt structure, carcass flexibility and high structural durability.”
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