Special competence for

special needs

Nokian Heavy Tyres consists of forestry tyres, harbour and mining machinery tyres, agricultural tyres, military and terrain vehicle tyres, and tyres for earthmoving and road maintenance needs. The business focuses on narrow and growing niche segments. In forestry tyres the company has a 30% global market share. Tyres are sold on the OE and replacement markets in Nordic countries, Central and Southern Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan, the USA and Canada. Nokian heavy tyres are sold by the own sales companies, the Vianor chain and special tyre dealers.

In recent years, the demand for heavy tyres has increased, and there has been a global shortage of harbour and mining tyres in particular. The demand for forestry tyres has grown as a result of increased machine and equipment manufacture, which has been boosted by the automation of harvesting all around the world. The world’s biggest harvesting countries are the USA, Canada, Russia and Brazil.

Reliability and long service life

Nokian Heavy Tyres has pioneered forestry tyre research and product development for decades. The tyres are sold wherever professional harvesting is practised. Nokian brand is known for its high quality, which means effective usage hours and reliablity in demanding conditions.

Nokian Tyres has developed special tyres for CTL (cut-to-length) forestry machines, invented in the Nordic countries since the 1960s, and the company is the world’s market leader in this area.  Nokian Heavy Tyres has the benefit of being closely located to the world’s leading machine manufacturers, with whom the company co-operates closely in the R&D.

Nokian Tyres has gained a foothold in the global tyre markets for harbour and mining machines. The rubber compounds, treads and structures used in harbour and mining tyres have been designed so that the tyres withstand wear and tear for a long time and are easy toretread. Customers value tyres that are functional and cost-effective. Economic hourly usage costs of tyres and machines are more important to them than low purchase prices.

Environmental friendliness guides product development

Environmental friendliness is a key principle in the product development of Nokian Heavy Tyres. The company aims to develop products that load and strain the environment as little as possible. Nokian Heavy Tyres does not use any toxic, high-aromatic oils in its production; it has replaced them with environmentally friendly, low-aromatic oils in its rubber compounds. Fuel consumption and emissions can be considerably reduced by the correct selection of tyres, which is why Nokian Heavy Tyres is developing products with as low a rolling resistance as possible.

Additional production capacity

To respond to the increasing demand, Nokian Heavy Tyres is continuing to invest in new production technology and to enhance its productivity. New technology and new production methods have considerably

increased production capacity. Additional investments, acquisitions and development projects will further increase production capacity and enhance growth prospects.

Read more from Nokian Tyres' Annual Report 2007