2009 - Page 195 of 205

Bridgestone Gets Adrenalin Pumping in Australian Tyre Test

An evaluation of 14 tyres conducted by Australia’s Motor magazine for its annual Tyre Test has seen Bridgestone’s Potenza Adrenalin RE001 dominate proceedings. In a range of tests including wet and dry slalom, wet and dry braking, lateral G-force measurements and overall lap times, the Adrenalin scored a total of 120.1 points, almost five points ahead of its nearest road tyre competitor.

“We’re happy to applaud the Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE001 as this year’s performance road-tyre winner,” stated Motor magazine journalist Sean Cleary. “It demonstrated outstanding consistency and even offers decent value against its competitors.”

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Porsche Wins the 24 Hours of Dubai Endurance Race on Pirelli

Product News

Pirelli reports its 2009 motor sport season opened in the best possible way, with the securing of a decisive win in the 24 Hours of Dubai endurance race that took place on the weekend of January 10-11. After 24 hours of racing, the Land Motorsport Porsche 997GT3Cup, driven by Gabriel Abergel, Carsen Tilke, Niclas Kenberich and Andzej Dzikevic led home the other 58 finishers with a winning margin of half a lap.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Yokohama Announces Five New North American OE Fitments

Product News

Five new fitments have been added to Yokohama Tire’s North American OE portfolio. The company’s products have been selected for the 2009 model Mazda MX-5, Mazda 3, Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart and, despite previous information to the contrary, Nissan’s 370Z. The Nissan, MX-5, Mitsubishi and Mercedes-Benz will be treated to the company’s flagship Advan range – Advan Sport for the AMG and 370Z and A11A and A10A for the Mazda and Lancer respectively – while the Mazda 3 will be shipped with Yokohama’s Avid S34D.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Superior Industries Closing Van Nuys Aluminium Wheel Factory

Product News

US based aluminium wheel manufacturer Superior Industries International intends to close its factory in Van Nuys, California. In a statement published January 13, the company said the closure is taking place “in an effort to further reduce costs and more closely align its capacity with sharply lower demand for light vehicles.” Superior Industries added that its remaining five North American facilities and its Hungarian joint venture operation contain sufficient capacity to accommodate current and expected production requirements.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo, MRF Lower Indian Market Prices

Product News

Indian market prices for Apollo Tyres’ products are set to drop by three to five per cent as of January 15, the company reports. The company has not made clear, however, whether these price reductions will be extended to tyres sold in export markets.

Prices have been revised in keeping with a softening of key raw material prices since September 2008, Apollo says. The company adds that since December the cost of both crude oil and natural rubber have resumed their upward trend, and the benefit of lower raw material prices is yet to be felt in the company’s bottom line. Despite this, Apollo states it has decided to take a proactive step in lowering prices for consumers.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone a Strong Performer in Magazine Motorcycle Tyre Tests

Product News

2008 ended on a high note for Bridgestone UK, with the company’s products fairing well in recent tests performed by RiDE and Bike magazines, which put a range of motorcycle tyres through their paces.

RiDE magazine’s RiDER Power survey, the largest consumer survey of riders on all aspects of motorcycling, from top dealers to the bikes themselves, assessed the tyres on a range of criteria from grip to longevity. Bridgestone reports its tyre came top in several categories, including tyre life and wet and dry grip. Bridgestone’s Trial Wings and Battle Wings tyres dominated the top ten in the tyre life category, scooping the top spots in the front and rear categories respectively, with the BT-045 and BT-057 also making the top twenty. The BT-090 topped the tables for dry grip and a number of other tyres in the range also rated highly in the wet and dry grip categories.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Mexico’s Bienes Turgon Acquires Delphi’s Global Exhaust Business

Product News

Bienes Turgon, S.A., a Mexican holding company with interests in the automotive industry through its subsidiary Katcon, S.A., has announced the acquisition of Delphi Corporation’s global exhaust system business in its entirety. The transaction, covered by a Master Sale and Purchase Agreement and financed with an equity increase and existing cash reserves, is expected to be closed during the first half of 2009.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental to Increase Share Capital by 1 Billion Euros

Product News

Continental AG executives are reportedly planning to increase the company’s share capital by around 1 billion euros. Alan Hippe, Conti CFO and head of the group’s tyre and non-tyre products division told Reuters that the move was designed to secure the company’s financial position: “In view of the difficulty to predict how things will develop over the course of this year, it’s completely logical to think about strengthening your equity capital…”

Hartmut Meine, a member of Continental’s supervisory board told the news agency that the automotive supplier is already in preliminary talks with potential subscribers, which could include “industrial companies, family-held groups or financial investors.” Reuters reported that Continental shares fell up to a fifth following news of the capital increase plan. At the time of going to press, Continental’s share price was around 20.90 euros. The fact that the current share price is so low may mean that Continental will use the maximum third of its existing equity to raise the funds, Reuters reported.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Share Rating Cut to “Sell”

Product News

Bloomberg is reporting that the slump in the car market and subsequent deflation in demand for car parts has led to shares in tyre manufacturers on the Tokyo Stock Exchange entering a slump. The decrease in prices has led to Goldman Sachs analysts to downgrade its rating of shares in the world’s largest tyre maker by sales, Bridgestone, from “buy” to “sell.”

Close of play on 15 January saw Bridgestone decline 4.2 per cent to 1,279 yen, while other large manufacturers Yokohama and Sumitomo decreased 7.9 and 6.6 per cent, to finish at 375 and 652 yen respectively. Both companies are also rated as “sell” by Goldman Sachs. Yuki Kimura, writing in his analyst report, said that manufacturers “will likely face increasing pressure to cut costs from carmakers, which are looking at deteriorating results.”

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

NTDA Urges Industry to Back Brityrex in September

Product News

The National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) has expressed its disappointment at the cancellation of April’s CV Show in a statement that also encouraged support for September’s Brityrex exhibition.

Association director Richard Edy said that members would be directly affected by this week’s decision: “The CV Show is always of great interest to many of our members involved in supplying and servicing commercial vehicle tyres. Of course it’s disappointing that a major opportunity to do business has been lost but we appreciate that these unprecedented economic times have hit the vehicle manufacturing sector extremely hard. We look forward to the show returning next year,” he said.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Producing Tyres for Yokohama in Brazil

Product News

Yokohama Rubber and Continental AG have entered into a tyre production partnership in Brazil, reports Asia Pulse’s Asia in Focus. Under the partnership, the Japanese manufacturer has begun receiving a supply of Yokohama branded passenger car tyres, in small car dimensions, from a Continental factory in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The number of tyres being produced under this agreement has not been disclosed.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

TyreSafe and NTDA Advise Proper Winter Tyre Usage

Premium, Product News

Tyresafe and the National Tyre Distributors Association have released a message for British skiers driving to their destination of choice this season: make sure your tyres are fit for purpose. Tyresafe says that, when heading to European skiing destinations, motorists should ensure they use correctly inflated tyres with sufficient tread depth to perform on icy, snow-covered roads.

Backing up the organisation’s advice, the NTDA has released a special technical bulletin to provide advice for UK Tyre retailers to pass on to their customers planning to drive across Europe in the coming months. The bulletin will allow dealers to give valuable advice to British motorists, many of whom may be unaware of the guidelines set out by each individual country.

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15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Yokohama Tyres Get EPA SmartWay Approval

Product News

Three Yokohama medium truck tyres have been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay program, which promotes cleaner, more efficient truck technologies. Yokohama’s RY617 steer tyre, 703ZL drive tyre and RY587MC2 trailer tyre met the SmartWay program’s rolling resistance criteria, the tyremaker said. With the approval, the tyres can be used on trucks that are SmartWay-certified.

“Yokohama is honored to be recognized by the EPA for our efforts to produce truck tyres that help save fuel and protect the environment,” said John Cooney, Yokohama’s director of commercial sales. “Receiving approval into the SmartWay program reinforces our pledge to our commercial customers to produce the most technologically-advanced tyres on the market.” (Tire Review/Akron)

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

European New Car Sales Fell 8% in 2008

Product News

Western European new car registrations fell 8 per cent in 2008, while the monthly figure for December plummeted 19 per cent. According to the European car makers’ association, ACEA, this is the sharpest annual fall since 1993. However, according to market analysts, the fact that there were two extra selling days in 2008 means that when 2007 and 2008 are compared like-with-like the results are actually worse than those published.

The UK market was one of the three worst affected in Western Europe, with registrations falling 21 per cent year-on-year and 11 per cent year-to date. The Spain was the only market worse affected than the UK. According to the ACEA figures, Spanish new car registration were 50 per cent down year-on-year and 28 per cent down year-to-date.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop UK Combines Farm/OTR and Truck Divisions

Product News

Goodyear Dunlop UK has announced the combination of its Farm and OTR department with its Truck department. As part of this change, Andy Morris, who was previously the director of Farm and OTR, will take on the new role of commercial sales manager. Morris is a 33-year Goodyear Dunlop veteran, and the company notes that he led the Farm department into a profitable position, crafting a skilled and specialised sales team.

14th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

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