2009 - Page 124 of 205 - Tyrepress

Bridgestone’s Poland TBR Facility Officially Opened

A traditional “kagami-biraki” sake barrel breaking ceremony attended by more than a hundred guests and a guided factory tour has marked the official opening of Bridgestone’s new 200 million truck and bus radial facility in Stargard, northwest Poland. Senior company management including Bridgestone Corporation CEO Shoshi Arakawa and Bridgestone Europe CEO Toru Tsuda presided over the May 18 events and played host to numerous local, regional and national officials such as Mrs Grazyna Henclewska, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Economy, Mr. Tanabe, Japan’s Ambassador to Poland and Mr. Husejko, Marshal of West Pomerania.

19th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Reports Solution to Stöcken Factory ‘Conflict’

The conflict regarding plans to end commercial vehicle tyre production at Continental’s Hanover-Stöcken plant has been resolved, the company reports. Continental management, the IG BCE trade union and employee representatives have reached an agreement on a solution that, in Conti’s words, “makes use of all instruments the labour market provides and opens up prospects for 2010.” The agreement will see the suspension of commercial vehicle tyre production at Stöcken as of the end of 2009, a move supplemented by a number of other measures.

“The package is the result of several rounds of intensive talks that came close to being bro-ken off at a number of points. In the end, however, the two sides moved closer and, against the backdrop of a dogged and complex economic situation, faced up to their responsibility,” said Werner Bischoff of the IG BCE Executive Committee following talks on May 19.

19th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Appoints New PR Firm for World Cup Tyre Campaign

Continental has negotiated a deal reportedly worth six figures with Inside Media for consumer PR in the UK, selecting the firm after pitches from five companies. PR Week’s Chloe Markowicz reports that the German manufacturer has given Inside Media a UK brief that will include the promotion of the brand’s safety message and its involvement in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The commercial vehicles side of the business will still be related in the media by Conti’s existing agency Automotive PR and motoring PR will be processed in-house.

The major focus is said to be in publications outside the sphere of the traditional motoring press, with the more generalised lifestyle media specifically in the frame. Continental’s communications manager Laura Hardy told Tyrepress.com, “Inside Media are working to increase our press coverage outside of the motoring pages. A lot of drivers don’t read the traditional motoring media but we still want to take the Continental brand name and our safety message to them, that’s why we’ve chosen Inside Media who are specialize in national press and lifestyle media coverage.”

19th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

TyreSafe Reporting Record Interest in Bike Tyre Safety Month

April’s Bike Tyre Safety Month saw the TyreSafe website receive the highest number of visits to its website to date, the safety organisation has reported. According to a statement, the tyre safety campaign saw tyresafe.org receive 26,700 visits during the month-long campaign, a 185 per cent increase from April 2008.

TyreSafe’s Bike Tyre Safety Month aimed to raise awareness of the importance of tyres in road safety. Top tips for bike tyre safety maintenance together with key tyre safety advice were shared with bikers via a dedicated page on the TyreSafe website, where visitors were also offered the opportunity to register for the organisation’s newsletter and receive a free tyre valve extension. The campaign received support from a wide range of organisations, such as the Motorcycle Industry Association, the Institute of Advanced Motorists and the British Motorcyclists Federation.

19th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Event Mobile Tyres Reports 10,000th Happy Customer

Online and mobile tyre fitting business Event Mobile Tyres has reportedly received over 10,000 positive testimonials on its website. The company broke the 10,000 mark prior to going to press with the news, so the running total is understood to be in excess of 10,313. Speaking to Tyres & Accessories, IT and marketing manager Dave Jones explained that despite having had so many customers satisfaction rates remain very high. In real terms this means there have only been six or seven negative comments compared with five-figures of positive responses.

Here’s what the 10,000th happy customer, Andrew Sturgeon, said: “Competitive prices and friendly, helpful staff mean I don’t waste time searching the web because there seems little point in going elsewhere. Above all they keep you informed so you don’t waste time waiting. Now been using them for five years.”

19th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Dunlop Aircraft Appoints China Plant Head

Dunlop Taikoo (Jinjiang) Aircraft Tyres Company has appointed KK Chan as general manager of its new aircraft retreading and new tyre distribution facility in China. The company is a joint venture with Birmingham-based Dunlop Aircraft Tyres, HAECO (Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company) and TAECO (Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Company). Based in Jinjiang, Fujian Province, the company’s new facility is already distributing new tyres throughout the Asia Pacific region and is reportedly going through the approvals process to start retreading.

19th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Monaco GP Grip “Main Challenge” for Bridgestone Tyres

Bridgestone is to exempt the Monaco Grand Prix from its Formula One race tyre allocation policy of varying the compounds used by at least two degrees in an effort to attain more grip on the slippery streets of Monte Carlo. The company announced that it is bringing its soft and super soft Potenza slicks to the event, which begins officially with practice sessions on Thursday. Bridgestone will also debut a new softer compound intermediate tyre, designed to deliver more grip in the wet. It will be used for the remainder of the 2009 season.

Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone’s director of motorsport tyre development, appears ready for the difficulties posed by the street race in Monaco: “Finding grip will be the main challenge… This is a very interesting circuit, and one where the track is made of many different types of surface as well as there being public road markings on the track. Also notable is that F1 does not run on Friday, so the track conditions can change quite a lot between Thursday and Saturday. When there is no racing taking place, public vehicles and also people use the track. This makes it difficult for rubber to build up and the surface can become dirty again, which does not help the track surface develop well for racing.”

19th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

GITI Eyeing European OE Business

In order to strengthen its place in the lucrative European replacement market, and with a view to positioning itself for OE contracts, GITI Tire has invested significantly in the expansion of both the company’s main R&D centre in China and the development of a world-class European Technical Centre (ETC). The ETC is based at the renowned MIRA Ltd. facility near Birmingham in the UK where company representatives emphasised that they are already making thorough use of state of the art test facilities a highly experienced test engineers.

For the team, which is led by experienced tyre R&D expert Eddie Young, the first step was to undertake an extensive benchmark programme in order to gain a full understanding of the main competitor’s current performance levels and strengths and weaknesses with the clear objective of designing and engineering GITI products to reach and even surpass these premium competitor’s performance levels. And when you consider that the global R&D is both international in its representation and comprised of technicians who have previously worked at the highest levels of leading tyre brands, you can understand why the bar has been set so high.

19th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

ArvinMeritor to Close Carrollton Wheel Assembly Facility

Global market weakness has been cited as the reason behind ArvinMeritor’s decision to idle its Carrollton facility. Wheel end assembly operations at the plant, located in the US state of Kentucky, will be moved to other facilities in Kentucky and Ohio and the machining and casting activities currently performed on-site will be outsourced.

“Although the employees in Carrollton have demonstrated a strong commitment to performance and quality, the continued weakness in the global markets has driven the company to aggressively reduce costs to lower its breakeven point,” said Wayne Watson, general manager, North American Operations for ArvinMeritor. “Closing the Carrollton operation is another necessary step toward improving the company’s overall cost structure.”

18th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

TRW Opens China Test Facility

TRW Automotive Holdings has announced the opening of a new test track in Heihe, northern China. Work at the site began in 2006 and TRW states that during the last three years a “significant investment” has been made in the facility. The track specialises in winter testing and includes a variety of track surfaces designed to test active safety systems such as advanced braking and steering systems and integrated vehicle control and driver assist technologies. According to TRW, the opening of the test track, which is to receive support from the company’s Shanghai technical centre engineers, completes its footprint to locally engineer products and applications for China-based customers.

18th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Lockout Declared at MRF Facility

According to a statement lodged with the Bombay Stock Exchange, Indian tyre manufacturer MRF Ltd has declared a lockout at its Arkonam facility in Tamil Nadu “on account of labour unrest in the factory.” The lock out officially commenced at 3.00pm local time on May 17, the statement adds.

18th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

ContiSportContact 3 Specially Modified for Panamera Fitment

Hot on the heels of OE reports from Michelin and Pirelli is news that Continental has especially adapted its ContiSportContact 3 for the Porsche Panamera. Conti states the new sports saloon will be launched with its tyres, tweaked to match the car’s chassis and particular specifications. This limited series of Porsche specific tyres will display the designation ‘N0’ after the product name as a point of difference from the standard ContiSportContact 3.

The Panamera’s front wheels will be fitted with size 255/45 ZR 19 (100Y) tyres while the rear will wear size 285/40 ZR 19 (103Y). The alternative sizes 245/50 ZR 18 (100Y) and 275/45 ZR 18 (103Y) have also been approved by Porsche for the Panamera and also carry the special designation ‘N0’.

18th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Terry Richardson – Spotted at Work on Pirelli’s 2010 Calendar?

According to Black Book, rumours circulating in recent months about Terry Richardson’s involvement with the 2010 Pirelli Calendar have been given some extra weight following sightings of the fashion photographer at work in Brazil. Word is that Terry is busy in Bahia with a list models that include Ana Beatriz Barros, Gracie Carvalho, Georgina Stojiljkovic and possibly also Catherine McNeil.

A picture of Richardson at work in Brazil, depicting a model resembling Catherine McNeil bareback on a white horse, has been leaked in the media. According to Black Book, for the 2010 edition of the Cal we should expect a wodge of nude models – nothing new for Richardson – provocatively posed in a pastoral setting.

18th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo Concludes Vredestein Banden Acquisition

The Apollo Tyres acquisition of Vredestein Banden BV, now officially concluded, has been described by Vredestein Banden CEO Rob Oudshoorn as a “win-win combination for both companies.” With all regulatory approvals and place and consent from the Judge of the Dutch Courts granted, Apollo now holds a 100 per cent share in the Netherlands based manufacturer. While official statements on the acquisition give no purchase price for Vredestein-Banden, the Wall Street Journal notes that a ‘person familiar with the situation’ disclosed a sum of 175 million euros.

18th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyrepress.com Opens Twitter Account

Tyrepress.com is never one to resist the progress of the times, or indeed another forum through which to deliver important tyre industry news stories to its readers. Therefore, it is with great delight that the industry’s favourite news source announces its new presence on miniature update site, Twitter.com.

Readers of Tyres & Accessories, Tyrepress.com and the Tyrepress.com e-Newsletter are cordially invited to “follow” Tyrepress’ progress here. To do so, all you need is a Twitter profile, from which you can add Tyrepress to the list of fellow tweeters you are following. (The process is much simpler than it is easy to describe!)

18th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

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