2009 - Page 30 of 205 - Tyrepress

EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement Will Aid Tyre Sales

Editorial/Comment, International News, News

On 15 October EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton and Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon initialled a free trade agreement (FTA), which the EU calls “the most important ever negotiated between the European Union and a third country.” Estimated to be worth a total of 19 billion euros in new trade for EU exporters, the agreement is designed to remove virtually all tariffs between the two economies.

However, it is a bilateral deal. And European carmakers, apparently fearful of being swamped by imports of more economically priced Korean cars in an already depressed market, were the first to call for a rethink through industry body ACEA. However this appears to have been too little too late and according to the commission, the initialling signals the end of negotiations. The current “stable legal text” will be formally presented to EU Member States in early 2010. So what does this mean for the European tyre (and associated product) markets?

30th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

JK Commissions ‘India’s First Radial Truck Tyre Plant’

JK Tyre & Industries Ltd., maker of JK Tyre, Vikrant and Tornel, today (30 October) inaugurated what is reputed to be the country’s first radial truck and bus tyre manufacturing plant. The project doubles the radial tyre capacity at JK’s Mysore site from 400,000 to 800,000 a year, at a cost of 3.15 billion rupees (£40.445 million; 45 million euros; US$67 million). A further expansion of OTR capacity in Mysore, involving an investment of 1.2 billion rupees (£15.395 million; 17.178 million euros; US$25.484 million) is scheduled for completion in early 2010.

30th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Yokohama Releases CSR Report in English

The English language version of Yokohama Rubber’s CSR Report 2009 has gone online. A visit to the company’s website (http://www.yrc-pressroom.jp/env_en) will yield the annual document in PDF format. The company has also added a site report summarising CRS activities at each of its domestic and overseas production sites and affiliates.

30th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Snider Tire Opens MRT Retread Plant

North American retreader Snider Tire joined the Michelin Retreading Technologies (MRT) network of servicing dealers earlier this year. The company has now furthered its involvement with Michelin with the opening of an MRT truck tyre retreading facility in the town of Bluffton, Indiana. The new plant, which brings the total number of MRT facilities in the US to 81, will service two of Snider Tire’s ‘Tire and Retread Asset Control System’ (TRACS) locations: Bytheville, Arkansas, and Cambridge, Ohio. TRACS refers to Snider Tire’s cradle-to-grave tyre and retread solution for trucking fleet customers.

30th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

New Yokohama Website Almost Ready

Make a note on your calendar – its only three more sleeps until Yokohama Rubber’s new global tyre business website goes live. While Tyres & Accessories hasn’t enjoyed the benefit of a sneak preview beyond the image shown here, the Japanese tyremaker discloses that the new site will give visitors an even wider range of company information than the previous incarnation. What’s more, Yokohama says the site content has been enhanced and the design ‘dramatically’ updated.

30th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Titan's Third Quarter Results: Net Loss of $11.1 million

Titan International of Quincy, Illinois posted a net loss of $11.1 million for the period, compared to a net gain of $10.3 million for the same period last year, reports Tire Review. Driving down the profits was a sharp sales drop: $141.5 million for the quarter against sales of $255.5 million for the same period in 2008. Year-to-date sales were $581.1 million, compared to $778.1 million in 2008, and net profits year-to-date were $1.8 million in 2009, compared to $31.7 million last year.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Toyo’s Dave Taylor Closes Career

Dave Taylor, vice president of technical services at Toyo Tire USA, has announced his retirement after 23 years with the company, reports Tire Review. Toyo said Taylor played a key role in the pioneering of niche sizes and products such as the Toyo Open Country M/T and Proxes S/T. Earlier this week, sales vice president Armand Allaire left Toyo to become Kumho Tire USA’s new national vice president of sales.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Maxxis Tyres Star in UK and US Drifting

Maxxis has chosen to focus on the popular but still emerging motorsport of drifting in its sporting tyre supply. In US and European drifting this season, the brand has successfully supplied winning drivers in four popular series with the MA-Z1 Drift tyres, also sponsoring the competitors: in the UK and Ireland, Steve Biagioni of Team Japspeed has taken the British Drift Championship, Mark “Buff” Luney has claimed the European Drift Championship (EDC) and Dean Kearney has won the Prodrift Super Series. In the US, Chris Forsberg has won the Formula Drift championship.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

VOSA Revision Sparks Free MOT Upgrade Offer

The fact that VOSA has revised its 'Requirements for Authorisation for Vehicle Test Stations’, means that from November 2009, many existing MOT Class IV stations that would otherwise have been ineligible because of garage size etc, will now be able to upgrade their premises to ‘One Person Testing’ or full ATL standard. As a result, the Trade Group which claims to be “the UK’s foremost experts in MOT and ATL installations,” is offering “free survey reports,” without obligation, to any existing Class IV MOT stations, to see if they are now able to take advantage of this important revision to the regulations and make this a potentially lucrative upgrade for their business.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental Achieves 3Q EBIT of 413.4 million euros

Continental AG’s Rubber Group led the way in total group pre-tax profits (EBIT) of 413.4 million euros in the third quarter of 2009, with EBIT for the first nine months of this financial year totalling 662.1 million euros. The impressive profits, made from group sales of 5.337 billion euros in the third quarter (third quarter 2008: 5.892 billion euros) are widely seen as opening the door for Continental’s previously discussed 1 billion euro capital increase/ refinancing negotiations – “to be concluded no later than end of 1st quarter of 2010.” However, it wasn’t all good news and special effects of around 1.36 billion, and in particular a goodwill impairment of 875.8 million in the Automotive Group cannot be ignored.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Snap-on Diagnositics Appoint Sarah Philpott Acting Marketing Manager

Snap-on has appointed Sarah Philpott as acting marketing manager. Philpott, who holds several qualifications in business management and administration (including an MBA from the University of East Anglia in Norwich) joined Snap-on Diagnostics in 2002. In addition to her new position, she also remains responsible for her primary role as sales support manager.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

GITI Draws on UK Experience For German Truck Tyre Business

In January 2009 GITI Tire Europe incorporated a new UK truck tyre subsidiary, a move taken to enable the company to better focus upon the specialist needs of this market segment. The independent company took over the truck tyre business from Romney International/Compass Group (who continue to distribute GITI’s passenger car range). GITI has now decided to adopt this British model in Germany, and as of October 26 the company has taken over distribution of truck tyres in the German market from Reifen Gundlach, who had served as exclusive importer since 1994.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

New Zealand Winter Tyre Restrictions “Not Enough”, Says Campaigner

The New Zealand Government has prohibited the fitting of both winter and summer tyres to the same vehicle, yet for a man that has campaigned against the cold weather product for two years this ban does not go far enough. Don Graham’s fiancée was killed in 2007 when her car – fitted with winter tyres on the rear wheels – lost traction on a wet road, and he believes that cold weather tyres have no place in New Zealand.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Irish Tyre Dealers Cautioned not to Fuel Halloween Bonfires

Halloween can oft be a spirited affair in the Emerald Isle, and one newspaper has called upon tyre dealers to do their bit in keeping festivities under control. Reporting on the Irish tradition of bonfire lighting on the eve of All Saints Day, the Galway Advertiser quotes a local policing committee chairman as saying the “gardai will do everything to increase patrols in the city to eliminate illegal bonfires. Tyre companies will also be called to ensure they do not give out any old tyres, and if they do they will be prosecuted.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Second Stage “Yokohama Forever Forest” Planting Held in China

Yokohama Rubber reports more tree planting activities, this time in the People’s Republic. On Saturday October 17 some 250 people connected to three Yokohama plants in China attended a jointly-staged second-phase tree-planting ceremony as part of Yokohama Rubber's "Yokohama Forever Forest" project. Workers and their families from Hangzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd. (production and sale of passenger car tyres), Yokohama Hamatitie (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. (production and sale of sealants for passenger cars), and Yokohama Hoses & Coupling (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. (production and sale of hydraulic hoses) joined Yokohama Rubber's overseas trainees and other representatives in the planting of around 2,400 seedlings of trees indigenous to the local area.

29th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

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